Imaginaerium
by Aiko Isari
Summary: Welcome to a world where dreams are real and reality is flexible. This is a lesson everyone has to learn first hand. And without love, none of those important details can be seen. Magic won't exist without it. A Decode Rewrite. Prequel to If the Moon Shines
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter One: The Tiny Djinn**

It was another night like this, in a place he vaguely felt he should know. A place that was lush with green life, among other things. Today, however, the forest was wilting, the signposts around the trees rusty and inactive. The sky around him was dim, and even squinting, he could only make out outlines of where branches would be. This dream was quieter, but it still make him squirm a little.

Well, to be honest, that was probably the cold.

With no other choice, the dreamer proceeded further, curious like always. Yet this time, there was a strange sort of dread in his stomach. Maybe he knew what was coming. That was new. He rarely repeated dreams, right?

Up ahead, he heard a voice. They laughed. He wasn't sure whether he wanted to chase it or not. They laughed again, closer now. But he couldn't hear any footsteps. So were they moving closer, or was he?

"Great... It's one of those dreams, isn't it? Those creepy ones where things happen despite everything I do..." He gave a sigh. "Alright, who is out there? Some ghoul or monster that wants to gut me and is luring me in with innocent sounds? Haven't had one like that in a while."

Another laugh, and this was closer to his ears. "Gut you?" Finally, he heard footsteps, bare feet gently hitting dirt. "Why would I do that? I think you must play a lot of those...mm?" The pause was followed with an excited jump. "Video games! Yeah, those! That's what they're called."

When he listened, he could hear the voice of a girl. She was hopping from place to place. As his eyes adjusted to the light, he could see someone, a tiny figure just ahead of him.

They waved. "Hello!"

"Um... Hi. You're, uh, quite friendly there."

They tilted their head. "Yes...?" She clasped her hands behind her back. "Should I not be?"

"My dreams usually aren't. Well, they usually aren't a lot of things. Either entirely empty or things like this place here, only less dead." He waved his arms. "There usually isn't a friendly person in my dreams, either. Usually isn't anyone, unless it's someone killing me. I hate those dreams. You gonna end up doing that too? Because I'd like a warning if you do."

"Mm?" She giggled again. "If I was going to kill you, I wouldn't be waving at you would I?" She spun in place as the light picked up, revealing a dress that reached her knees, a soft red color. The ribbons at the wrists danced as she spun, looking a bit like... well, he wasn't going to think about that. "I hope I don't have to kill you. That would defeat the purpose of me being here, of our call."

"Okay... That makes sense, but dreams can change a lot very quickly." He shrugged. He pursed his lips at her other words. "Like this. Weird dream NPC hinting at some grand purpose for us talking, can't say I've ever experienced that. So what is the purpose for this 'call', then, girlie?"

The girl mussed her blonde locks. "I wanted to meet you at least once," she said. "Before everything, as you put it, 'changes a lot'." She added air quotes at the end of her sentence. "We've been waiting for you, for those like you. I wanted to see what you looked like in this state. I can't say if there's any other reason or not though!"

"Ooookay. I'm gonna need a little more than that to figure out what you mean by that, little lady."

She tilted her head. "Um... that's specific." She giggled. "She's been waiting for you about as long as me. You really should be looking for her." Her smile turned playful. "Bu-ut, maybe I can answer your questions. Only three!"

"Three, huh? Just that specific number... Someone is self styling themselves as a genie. Very well then, little genie girl, as my first question: What's your name? So I don't have to keep calling you 'girl'."

The little girl laughed, and it sounded faulty for just a moment. "A genie huh? sounds cute! Though I'm more of a praying type, myself!" Bright, electric-blue eyes bored into him, almost aglow, then they were normal again. "My name... what _is_ my name?" She frowned, tapping her index finger against her cheek. "Mm... I don't think I have one. But if I think of _that person_ , and I think of _those people_ , they would say I am me. Therefore, you can call me Mi!" She grinned, looking proud of herself, chest puffed out and all.

"Huh." That eye color changing had been... Different. "Mi, eh? Cute name, I suppose, for a cute little girl." A little flattery went a long way, after all. "Second question, then. You mentioned someone else supposedly waiting for me. Who else is waiting for me?"

'Mi' laughed. "Probably shouldn't flatter me. That can be misunderstood." She turned to the tree behind her, resting her hands on its trunk. "Hm... An important person to you. You won't believe me if I say it I think, but you will love her. It's like fate... or something." She giggled. "You're going to discover a whole bunch of things about yourself because of her, and she'll do the same because of you. That's how love works in stories, right? In the good ones."

"Fate, huh. That's a rather lame thing, that and destiny. It takes the choice out of things." He wasn't sure on what to say on the other things, to be honest. He didn't particularly believe in love himself, but who knows. If he did purportedly meet this person who was supposed to mean so much to him his mind might be changed. "Final question, then." He had quite a few for his final one but he realized he could only choose one. So he had only this to ask, "What do you mean by everything changing?"

Mi smiled at him. "So cynical despite your youth." She lifted both hands up to the air. "I mean exactly what I said. Your ordinary life is going to go far away~! And it will never come back. You're going to have a grand adventure, make more friends, and become a hero! And if I'm lucky," She looked at him with teary eyes and a smile that shined in the light of the moon. "You're going to kill me."

Her form distorted, skin turning charcoal black and smoking. Three ugly red slash marks tore into her face and dress, leaving open, oozing wounds.

Then, it was gone, and Mi was spinning, laughing carelessly again. "Or maybe you won't! I dunno. There's still plenty of choices remaining, and only choices decide fate."

"... Okay what." Surprise surprise, he was shocked for once in his dream. "What even was that?"

Mi tilted her head. "T _hat_ was a fourth question," she chirped. Cheeky little child.

"Yes it was, and kind of pertinent to the discussion at hand."

"It is? Well, I dunno if I can satisfy your curiosity. After all, if this is a dream, you shouldn't be dreaming about me at all. The next time we meet, I have to try and kill you, at least a little, so it's probably better you don't get too attached. Just ask your friends, it makes things difficult to clean up."

He supposed he shouldn't be surprised that a dream was being evasive. It was still annoying. "That's not helping me in the least, Mi."

Mi laughed at him. "Why would I help the person who has to kill me? Unlike _that person_ , I have a little bit of self-preservation left in me. If you want answers, search for them yourself. Otherwise, you will just be dragged along at Fate's pace. And then you have no right to complain about how it ends, because you did nothing about it. Does that make sense?"

"Sounds like a video game hook."

Mi looked at the ground. "I hope it catches your attention then." She sighed. "I don't think there's anything else I can do for you, not that there's much I can do as it is." She regarded her hands. "Well... maybe there's one more thing I can do." She began moving closer to him, eyes glowing blue again.

"Um." Why couldn't he move now? Usually he could, but it felt like his body was suddenly leaden with a weight he couldn't shrug off. She came closer. "Um?" She wasn't stopping. Crap, the weird dream child with glowing eyes and ability to change her form was nearly upon him. "I thought I told you to warn me if you got murderous?"

Mi smiled. "I did. I'm not killing you, though,eventually you may wish I was, if only to make it all go away." She looked at him and pouted. "This is gonna be hard. Yours is all asleep and you're technically _not here_." She shook her head. "Hmph, maybe I shouldn't have hijacked her dream after all. Oh well." She formed a single cube and it rotated around her finger. She gave it a gentle push, letting it sink into his chest. "It will take a bit of time to open, but if it's you, you'll be able to do it." She giggled. "I think that was the hook you were looking for."

"What do you-" Suddenly fireworks when off behind his eyes and he found himself on the ground, curled into a ball as pain blossomed in his chest, molten iron coursing through his heart and into his veins, into every inch of his body. "What... What did you _do_ to me?" He was screaming his question now, even if he merely felt like he was watching what was going on behind his own eyes. A very disconcerting feeling. "Make it stop, please... It hurts!"

Mi crossed her arms. "I told you." Her form distorted once more, once clear tears now red. "Everything is going to change. And we're starting _with you_." She stepped back. "Now you can feel it. This world is _crying_. Its people are _dying_. Now, choose, turn it off and look away, or bear it and make it stop. Choose."

"I want... I want this to stop!" No one should suffer so much. He didn't believe in love but he did believe in charity and helping people. If the world was feeling this, he needed to stop it, or at least lessen it somehow. "Tell me... How do I stop this? How can I make this pain go away from others?"

 _Taiga_ a distant voice spoke. The girl didn't seem to notice it.

Mi's expression softened. "Answer," she said, and the distortion shifted into white light, fading into another girl, slightly older. Her purple hair floated to an unseen wind, and her tattered clothes seemed ready to fall off of bruised and battered dark chocolate skin and pile in the grass. She gave him a small, meek smile. "Answer when your dream girl sings for you okay? That's the best option!" She paused and pressed a small hand into his hair. "This is the last face I saw her with, I'm afraid you will just have to guess."

"I... I will." That face was so familiar. He didn't know from where. But then another burst of agony tore through him and left him screaming, trying to breathe.

 _Taiga!_ The voice calling to him sounded distressed. He wasn't sure he could answer it.

Mi pressed a gentle kiss to his forehead. "Then I'm going to let you go to another dream. Preferably a less painful one. Close your eyes and think of your bed. Remember every little thing from it, until you can't think of anything else."

"All... Alright..." Taiga tried. The bursts of agony in his heart, in his brain, in everything worked to keep him from thinking clearly, but he remembered his bed. The scent of home, the scent of his space, safe from everyone and everything. He remembered all of the nights in that bed, half of them lonely until he'd finally got his V-pet. Then there was always a comforting presence, something that would cover him with the scent of grandfatherly love, such a warmth that it would chase away the cold on even the nights where the heater never worked. He thought of his friends when they came over for sleepovers, of them all cuddling into the sheets and giggling like the children they were. He remembered...

 _Taiga! At last, my child, I've finally found you._ The presence was there at last. A gentle kiss from caramel lips pressed into his forehead as he was lifted from the ground, into strong arms. He curled his fingers into golden fabric of the man's toga unthinkingly, shivering harshly from the residual affects of the agony that had overcome him. _Come, my child. It is time to wake up. You are worrying your friends._

Quite so, as there was someone somewhat gently shaking his shoulder. "Taiga," they called, very close to his ear. "Taiga, seriously, do I gotta take you to the hospital? Make a noise or something! Wake up!" The voice was clearly concerned, as the shoves on his shoulder got slightly more intense. "Wake up before Niko elbows you in the spine! Come on!"

Taiga slowly blinked awake, staring up into the concerned eyes of one of his long time best friends - a green haired, red eyed girl who liked to wear less clothing than he'd ever seen another girl get comfortable casually stripping in public or around friends. She seemed glad he was awake now, at least, from, the relief in her anxious eyes. And here he thought she didn't do emotions other than outgoing, hyper, happy-go-lucky girl-

The morning light stabbed into his eyes at that moment, making a burst of pure agony go through his head and leaving him curled up in his sheets, whimpering before he could stop himself. He certainly didn't expect that to happen. Seemed that the pain from that dream followed him in real life...

Rina blinked. "Good morning to you too... hm..." She frowned pensively. Looked like his eyes hurt... probably too much sun! Well, only one thing to do about that! She went to the blinds and closed them. "Niko, he's awake, you can call off the emergency room!" She half-yelled this across the apartment, not knowing that that would probably hurt too. Then, oblivious, she went over and put the pillow lightly over his head. "There, now ya don't gotta see."

She really wasn't aware that it could look like she was smothering him to death, was she?

"Good, because I think they don't wanna hear from us after the last few- WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" Niko's yelling wasn't appreciated, judging from the groan Taiga gave from under the pillow. The light being gone had been a blessing but he found he didn't like loud sounds as much either. "Get that pillow off his face! He won't be able to breathe like that!"

"Shut up, Niko..." Taiga groaned. "Yelling hour has passed, no more loud..."

Rina blinked. "The lights are too bright and the sound is too loud," she told him with a smile. "So I put the pillow over his head to make it better for him. What, did you think I was trying to choke him or something? You need more pressure for that!"

Of course, another oddity about being friends with Rina was that she would say things like that. She wouldn't have a care in the world about it either.

"... Rina. Get off my bed. I can keep this over my head by myself." Taiga couldn't exactly sound commanding at the moment but he hoped the sentiment was clear.

Rina bobbed her head, despite the fact that he couldn't see it. "Sure, sure!" She hopped off of the bed. "Good thing it's a Sunday, you missed your alarm... a lot."

Taiga let out a disgusted noise. Yes. Good thing it was Sunday, he doubted he'd be able to handle being a person if it had been a Monday. "How... How much?" He asked, voice brittle in his condition.

"It's past noon, dude." Niko came into the room and began to drag Rina away from their friend by the shoulders, just so she'd have less reason to hen. Taiga was notorious about not wanting to be treated like that. He'd been taking care of himself far too long to want to rely on people like that. "We weren't sure if you had a stroke or what."

"... _Oh_..." Taiga sighed. If possible he sounded even more tired.

"You were making funny noises in your sleep." Rina let herself be dragged, if only to stick her tongue in Niko's face. "I thought you didn't sleep talk." She paused, as if planning to say something more. Then she changed topics entirely. "There's soup being warmed up if you want any. My roommate and I had extra so she said to bring it over!"

"... I'm not hungry." He really wasn't. The idea of eating right now just wasn't pleasant at the moment. He felt nauseous even thinking about it. "You two... Go ahead and eat it."

"If you're sure, man." Niko said after a moment. He began to tug Rina out of the room anew. "Get some rest. We'll check on you again in a bit. Want some asprin and water?"

"If you would..." Taiga replied. He didn't move since Niko got in there, worrying his friend.

Rina regarded Taiga thoughtfully, then moved out of the room. "We'll leave the rest for you. Doubt we'll finish it off ourselves." She left to get the glass of water. As she did, her phone buzzed. "Mm... not the time," she told it. It gave another cheerful buzz.

She would let Niko worry for now. He had almost made a career out of it.

* * *

 _ **A/N:**_ Welcome to a shonen anime! I mean what.

In all seriousness, welcome to the other cowrite Onixflame and I were working on. He unfortunately has gotten very busy and due to reasons needs to cut back on his writing. So I'm posting these and writing for them now with him as beta. I'm about to repost Enduring too so there's that as well. Please leave us some reviews, as these stories mean a whole lot to us. Thanks so much.

 **Challenges:** Diversity Writing M11. alternate relationship! AU, AU Diversity boot camp prompt - protect (Alternate timeline AU), Prompts in Steps 5.6 - decimate, Epic Masterclass alternate timeline


	2. Chapter 2

_warning for parental abandonment and swearing. Also innuendo._

* * *

 **Chapter Two - Warmth on an Iceberg**

Nikolai sighed and took a moment to blow on his spoon, before bringing the soup up to his mouth and swallowing the broth instantly. It really was a good soup. He wished Taiga was here to try it, Rina's roommate really was quite the cook. He wondered why she never showed up along with Rina but figured she just wasn't interested in hanging out.

Taiga's sudden migraine had him worried. He worried about Taiga a lot, he found, but that was because he needed it. For as long as Niko knew Taiga, he had always smiled, even when he shouldn't have been, like he was hiding everything behind it. Being an orphan who grew too old to be adopted by most people probably did that to a person. He didn't ever want to know what it was like, being a ward of the state. It certainly made Taiga want to sit in his apartment all day and fiddle with his V-pet.

"Neh? How is it?" Rina folded her sweater neatly to the side, having put a T-shirt on. Why someone had to do that to eat soup, Nico probably would never understand. "He'll be okay, Nico. Don't worry yourself too much. He's just gotta fret over himself for a bit." Not that she wouldn't worry too, but she also knew better than to show any of this. "I put the rest in a container in his fridge. He'll get to it." She looked over his soup and exhaled over the bowl. Then, she dug into her own, not even bothering to cool it down.

Niko's face flushed slightly and he glowered at her. There wasn't any heat behind it, merely slight exasperation. "Blow on _your own_ soup, Rina. Sheesh, you're always trying to give me indirect kisses. You trying to tell me something?" He didn't bother commenting otherwise on her eating the soup without cooling it first. Rina just didn't react like a normal person did when it came to things like hot and cold. It just didn't affect her like everyone else, even when she was eating. _Especially_ when she was eating. She'd slurp up ice cream just as happily as she would soup, and at mach speed too.

Rina laughed. "I'm always trying to tell you stuff, Niko. You just don't pay enough attention." She slurped. "But mostly I was trying to tell you that if you didn't hurry up, I'd put the spoon in your mouth and it would hurt." She honestly did not notice temperature. At least, for the most part. it got very inconvenient sometimes. "And I usually want to kiss you but I don't think the public would appreciate the time that would take, and Taiga wouldn't either." She grinned. That wouldn't stop her any, of course. Might make Niko pause though.

"Funny, because I usually try to give you all of my attention whenever possible." He poked her in the side between her slurps, smirking a little. "Maybe you need to be a little more obvious? And not just mean. Seriously, I can't drink soup right out of the pot after it's done heating up like you can. It'll probably kill me." He sighed, going back to his soup. His ears were distinctly a little bit pink now. "Taiga will probably tell us to get a room, or a closet. The public... Yeah, they'll probably do that too. But we won't care all that much, probably."

"But you always say I'm not subtle!" she protested, pouting lightly at him. She wiped her mouth and winked. "I know it's too hot for you. That's why I blew on it for you! Aren't I helpful?" She beamed at him.

"Yeah well you always call me dense. As we both know, it doesn't even out." Niko poked her again, smirking. "I can blow on it on my own, Rina-chan. I'm a big boy now." Before he could comment more and continue this dialogue, his cellphone began to ring. He honestly jumped for a moment, startled. No one hardly ever called it, not even his Dad. Since Rina was around so much she usually didn't call it either. He honestly forgot it existed. When he went to check the caller ID, his startled befuddlement only got worse. That was his Dad's work number. His Dad usually didn't call him from work, if he ever did.

With some trepidation, he answered the call and put the phone to his ear. "Hello?" He greeted, unsure.

Rina frowned at the sight of the device. She honestly thought that thing had died and been thrown out ages ago. His dad wasn't the most talkative in the world as it was and no one else needed the damn thing.

"Nikolai? Is that you?" The speaker's voice trembled on the line. "I'm sorry to bother you. Is this a bad time?"

"Oh, uh. Hello." Niko didn't particularly know this person's name but he remembered them enough to recognize their voice. They were around a lot when he was younger and his Dad actually cared to come home. Their frantic tone really didn't help him, but he at least tried to pretend. Had something happened over there? Why were they calling and not his dad? "No, I was just staying over at a friend's house. He got hit with a bug so we're kinda taking care of him. Why?"

"I... I see..." There was a pause, and hushed voices, like the speaker was talking to someone else. Then they returned. "Did your father come home last night?"

"No... Dad's been out the past week. But he usually does that. He only ever comes home if he truly needs to." Which was usually to check on him and get some changes of clothes, then he was out again. That's the way it had been for about two years now, since Niko was technically old enough to care for himself. He tried not to be bitter about that, he really did, but Niko just couldn't hold back the slightly sarcastic bite to his voice.

"I see..." The voice was quiet again. "Thank you for letting me know. We had assumed he had just gone home early last night. But we'll check the other work stations. Thank you Nikolai. Sorry for disturbing you."

"You're welcome... Why'd you ask, though? He not where he usually works?" For some reason Niko was becoming worried. If they were calling him it was because something happened, but from what they were saying his Dad just plumb wasn't there.

There was a sigh. "I'm afraid not. We assumed he had just gone home to spend time with you. We haven't seen him in a couple of days after all, and that's pretty common for all of us, so we didn't think about it. But security says he never left last night." A sudden pause. "At any rate, I'll call you back if we get any news."

A pit instantly formed in Niko's stomach. "O-oh... Okay. T-thank you." When the line went dead, Niko stared down at his phone, his eyes unseeing for a moment. Then his hand began to tighten around it, ever so slightly.

Rina moved over slowly. "Niko?" Her normally bubbly voice had gone quiet. She scooted and leaned on him. She didn't need to ask. She had heard the phone call. She didn't want to offer him pointless consolation that could be a lie. So she waited, surprisingly patient, for him to talk again.

Niko had to swallow past the forming lump in his throat to be able to get the words out, incredulous, bitter and worst of all, utterly heartbroken, "Dad's gone. He left- he left _everything_. His job. His friends. Me. Up and gone. Completely. For two days." He just couldn't believe it. He knew his dad was distant but for him that was normal. His dad never, ever gave signs that he was intending to just up and leave Niko at some point, but then again disappearing for so long at his job could have been the sign Niko needed, because his dad definitely never gave any when he was around. Angry tears began to form in Niko's eyes as his grip on the phone tightened so much his entire arm began to shake.

Rina reached over and carefully pried the phone from Niko's grip, replacing it with her hand. "Are you sure he's not missing?" She kept her voice soft. "From what I could hear from the call, he never left work. Maybe something happened." What few times he had met Nikolai's father, he had been distant at most, uncomfortable with people, with something in particular. He didn't seem like the type to abandon something, anything he cared about, especially his own child. Maybe she had read him wrong.

"If he's gone missing that still means he _left_!" Niko didn't want to yell, when you yelled about anything you instantly lost. There was Taiga in the other room to take into consideration too. But Niko couldn't help it. This was the last in a long line of uncaring decisions his father made regarding him, and of course it had to be the worst one. "It means he... Just didn't want to have me around anymore, to support anymore. I was always, _always_ the least of his concerns at best and a parasite to him at worst. So yeah, why not just leave and not have to deal with my anymore? It makes perfect fucking sense to ditch the drain on your resources, right? That's... That's all I've ever been..."

Rina watched him for a while, waiting for him to wind down. Then she kissed him on the nose. "If he's gone missing that means something might have happened to him or worse." Her voice remained level, one eye flickering towards Taiga's door and away. "And even if you were either of those things, his job isn't. And your dad has never walked out on work before, right?" She pulled both of his cheeks and pinched them. "You're not a drain or a parasite. You're a person whose face I like to touch." _Among other things._

After a moment, Niko gathered her into his arms and buried his face into her shoulder. He didn't start crying, he was too angry for that, but he held onto her and shivered, trying to let her mere presence comfort him back into a state he could process this. Because as it was, he was failing completely, even with her words.

Rina reached to adjust and hugged him back, tucking herself so he could shiver and not worry about her discomfort. She paused a moment, thinking. His eyes were closed. Maybe she could get away with this. He needed something warm and soothing, so... Translucent red light washed over her, wrapping them both up like a blanket. She wasn't quite sure how comfort worked, but surely warmth was involved.

Niko didn't notice the light, but the sudden warmth surrounding him after the two embraced was comforting. It felt like love, like the kind his mother used to give him - but different, of course, since it was Rina. But it was comforting, and he took it for what it was worth. His shivering eventually ceased but he stayed like that, sitting there and holding her.

However, someone did notice. Taiga squinted as he watched them, his door open a crack to allow him to peek out at them. After a moment he stepped away to go back and lay down. He'd been resting in bed, dozing and having odd that didn't feel like actual dreams - Niko's yelling had woken him up rather rudely, but he couldn't say he minded. Seeing Rina comfort her boyfriend and his best friend let him know she had things under control. For some reason, seeing that odd red light cover them both didn't surprise him in the least. After his dreams... It was oddly comforting to see.

Of course, the moment had to be killed by the shifting of the doorknob. There were a couple of clicking sounds. The aura Rina was emitting shifted. It was still warm, but there was a sharper, heavier feeling to it. To Taiga, if he was still looking, he would see it darken. Then it almost vanished entirely, light and bright once more, as the door opened.

"Aki, breaking and entering is a crime." Rina chirped as she adjusted in the hug.

The person who swung the door open made a noise of discontent. A pink-haired teenager marched into the room, grabbing Rina by the ear. She glanced at Niko for a moment. "Sorry, probably interrupting a moment. I need to borrow your girlfriend." Against Rina's protests, she forcibly dragged the other out of the apartment, door swinging shut after them.

As soon as the door was shut and they were slightly down the stairs, Rindou Akiho whirled on Rina, dress spinning. "Are you out of your mind?"

"He was upset," Rina protested. It was halfhearted at best. She wasn't going to win this one. "You're always telling me I need to be sensitive and paying attention to him and stuff."

Akiho facepalmed. _Why me?_


	3. Chapter 3

_Warning for implied sexual content and cursing._

* * *

 **Chapter Three: Because of Reasons**

After a few moments of exasperated wall staring, Akiho turned back to her friend. She tugged without thinking on one of her ponytails. "Look, Rina..." The other teen perked, grinning at her. "You were doing the right thing trying to help him."

"I hear a but!" Rina said with a head tilt. "And it's not one I like to look at."

Akiho tried not to choke on her own spit. She sighed. "Pervert." Rina's smug look was only encouragement. "Just... look, be careful. Your other friend could have seen you. We have to blend in, you know?" She paused. "Well, as much as it's worth it. We never know when we might be called or something..."

"I know, I know." Rina reclined against the railing. "'Don't get so attached to this place', is what you mean right?" Her smile and eyes seemed to dim. "Don't worry... I'm ready for a worst case scenario. I'll just drag them with me if I have to. They won't mind."

Akiho sighed. D _oesn't sound like you're prepared to me_. "I guess. Well, so long as you're careful. I don't want them getting hurt because being with us is a health hazard."

"Is there a reason you broke into my apartment and dragged my friend out while she was having a moment with my friend?" Taiga's voice came from behind them. The boy stood there in the stairwell, his eyes squinting still at the light in the hallway. He still looked like hell and had to lean on the hand rail to stand. Niko was behind him, looking pensive.

Akiho didn't even turn. "A few," she said, voice now turning somewhat chirpy. "Cause she's my flatmate and she didn't answer her phone when I called her earlier, for starters."

Rina pretended to look sheepish. "If it's about the groceries, I didn't forget. Honest..."She didn't even have the excuse of looking after Taiga. This was just a

Akiho made a face of fond exasperation. "No, you got a letter in the mail. Said something about urgent reply." She flicked her eyes up toward Taiga. "You look kind of sick. You should probably lay back down."

Rina waved her arms, stepping between the boys and Akiho without thought. "She's okay, guys, really! She just worries about me and I worry about her! That's all! She just didn't want to make sure I was bowling into something I wasn't... and what was that letter about anyway?" She turned around, bouncing about on both feet.

Akiho shrugged. "Something about your grades. I didn't look." Actually, she had looked and while it wasn't important by their priorities, she probably needed to get Rina to look it over and give them an answer.

Taiga frowned hard at the pink haired girl and her flippant tone. Of course Rina would be friends with a _prep_. Somehow he wasn't surprised. She could make friends easy if she wanted. She'd become his through sheer determination and dogged persistence, after all. "She can answer for herself, Rina." He replied. For a second, he thought he something shift between them. "And she can worry about you _without_ picking the lock on my door and stealing you out of my apartment. The reason I have it locked is for privacy. If she wants to be let in for any reason, she can knock like a normal goddamn person. Otherwise, if she does this again I'm reinforcing my door and getting boltlocks and chains as well as barring my windows. And maybe a restraining order." He only lived on the second floor, after all. He had a feeling this girl was one of those determined types that didn't care about people's privacy. It was only a little endearing in Rina. He was half-sure it was because she just didn't know any better.

Rina's posture tensed a little and she made a small motion with her right hand. Akiho caught her wrist gently as it rose and smiled a bit. She shook her head. Rina tilted back to look at her, and Akiho flicked her nose. Rina stuck out her tongue. Niko shifted, hands in his pockets. Akiho, seeing her relax, turned back to Taiga, and bowed in apology. "Sorry about that," she said. "I just came from resolving something and I wasn't thinking straight. If there is a locked door between me and a goal, I tend to want to open it. I'm sorry, again. Don't worry, next time I will knock and everything." She wasn't sure if there would be a next time.

Taiga nodded slightly at her. "See that you do. Now if you don't mind, I'm gonna go pass out again." With that, he turned around and moved back up the stairs past Niko, hobbling back to his apartment. Niko watched him go for a moment before turning back to the girls, his stare pensive.

"Are you gonna come back too, Rina?" He asked gently. He wasn't going to publicly admit he wanted that to happen.

Rina nodded absently. "Just one sec," she told him. "Go on ahead, I'll be right there for hugs." She turned back to Akiho, who raised an eyebrow at them for a moment, mildly surprised. "What?"

"Nothing," she said, grinning a bit too wide. "Just real quick, you ought to know, that Kuro guy has been prowling around lately. I just, uh, made him very uncomfortable."

Rina visibly scowled. "He just doesn't learn."

"Kurosugi?" Niko asked, sounding surprised. He'd been about to go back and wait for Rina, but now he turned back to them, interested. "Isn't he the tamer who steals his opponents V-pets and deletes the data on them when he wins?" He winced as his own words caught up with his brain. "Oh, _man_... If he's in the area then I think keeping Taiga in is a good idea. He'll probably go looking for that asshole." He paused, looking at Akiho suspiciously. "How would you know he's around? And care?"

Akiho smiled and this one was not soft. "I just thrashed him five minutes ago. Including his nose." She held up a pink V-Pet. "I can beat a bully as well as anyone else."

"Couldn't have gotten everything else while you were at it," Rina muttered, red eyes glimmering with anger. She sighed. "So I'm next?"

"Probably. I sent another formal request in to get him booted from rankings," Akiho twirled a ponytail around her finger. "Considering all of the complaints, they might listen." She doubted it.

Niko blinked slowly. Well, he supposed that made sense. Lots of people from different cliques became tamers for different reason. Not to mention raising a Digimon was a good skill for learning how to raise a pet and a child, and considering the declining birth rates in Japan, Digimon was encouraged for the latter reason. It was why even housewives and working fathers would both raise Digimon as well.

"O-okay." He shrugged after a moment. "Nice meeting you, I guess. Next time, try not to pick locks, alright? I don't want to have a load of guest keys for all the locks he'd install and shit. See ya in a bit, Rina." With that, he headed back to the apartment.

Akiho smiled, and this looked more genuine. "Nice meeting you too, and your tired friend there. Tell him to try tea with orange in it!" As Nikolai went up the stairs, Akiho sobered. "That was him."

Rina scratched her head. "Yeah... you barged in at a bad time. And those two are kinda super emotional fellas so..."

Akiho winced. "Yeah, sorry..." She sighed. "Just be careful okay?" Rina grinned at her and she amended. "Well, don't try to get into too much trouble. Not even with Kurosugi. I know it's tempting, but..."

Rina reached over and squeezed her hand. "I'll keep my nose clean unless he gets in my face! Then all bets are off."

"The guy next door owes me if you get into something anyway." Akiho reached out and gave her a quick hug. "Imma go start dinner. Go put your boyfriend in your boobs."

Rina laughed loudly. "Yes, ma'am!" She hurried back inside.

Niko was waiting for her,, making a second, awkward attempt at lukewarm soup. "She was friendly," he remarked before he could stop himself.

Rina grinned, like nothing had happened at all. "You guys caught her on an off day."

"Does she always break into houses on an off day?" Niko gestured to her after a moment of looking around, as if someone else would peek in through Taiga's windows.

Rina bounded over, enveloping him in a shameless hug. "Usually, she beats the crap out of them. This was a change."

Niko flushed, embarrassed despite himself, before loosely wrapping his arms around her again. "You have weird friends," he mumbled into her hair.

"You guys included," she said with a fond smile, pressing her mouth to his. He flushed a darker shade of red.

"Rina!"

* * *

Akiho watched her go until Rina was safely up the stairs and out of sight. Then she smiled to herself and went back down the hall. Her Digivice toy beeped in her pocket and she laughed. "Yeah, I know."

Another beep. _"You still did it."_

"Course I did." Akiho waved farewell to the kind landlord as she passed, adjusting her grip on her school bag. "Tori, I have to protect her. She's not supposed to do that."

 _"Could have gotten you both hurt though."_ Her bird had no right to admonish her, she was the one who kept getting into trouble.

Akiho smiled again. "Pain is an important teacher. What do you think I should make for dinner tonight?"

 _"Something easy, like_ omurice*!"

Akiho nodded. "Sounds like a plan then." Her mama's omurice recipe would do the trick. She tapped the toy in gratitude. Digitorin scolded but never prodded. She was a better friend than Akiho deserved really. Some of the time.

The hairs on the back of her neck rose and she barely paused a step. The Tokyo streets were easy to blend into sometimes, easier than her hometown's, so long as you didn't bat an eye at pink hair. Most people didn't, outright to her face. That had been more towards her rosary, so that was safe and sound in her purse instead.

Japan was such a weird place.

She hummed to herself and put her headphones in. She heard Digitorin groan and it went ignored. It wasn't like she was going to just stop paying attention now. She just wasn't going to rely as much on her ears. She paused for a moment to duck into a convenience store.

"Peppers, chili powder, frozen poultry…" She ticked things off into her basket and mentally recalculated her budget. "Cheese… ginger…"

Footsteps behind her, faint over the sound of her music. Reflexively, Akiho shifted to the side in an attempt to reach one of the grey boxes of tea just overhead. As she did, pale fingers brushed hers in an attempt to do the same thing. They retreated in surprise as she looked down. Well, slightly down. He wasn't that short.

The boy grinned up at her. To be honest, it was more of a smirk because of the blankness of his eyes, but Akiho guessed it was more sheepish due to the quirks of his mouth. Or she was an optimist. "Sorry about that," he said. "I forget that my taste in tea is not entirely uncommon." Then he noticed the earbuds in her ears and moved to repeat himself.

Akiho quickly shook her head, pulling the headphones out. "Don't worry, I heard you." She handed him a couple of boxes before taking two herself. "My roommate and I like tea in the mornings. Our parents were a little traditional, so…" She trailed off in an attempt to avoid more detail.

"So old habits die hard," the boy supplied, still with that smile. It would be unsettling if Rina didn't smile incessantly herself. "My younger brother hates tea, so I have to buy and make my own in secret." He waved a hand. "It's a bit of an annoyance."

Akiho tittered in sympathy. "My sister was the same. Then someone gave her chamomile and it was all over for the wallets."

He chuckled. It reminded her of leaves crackling underfoot. "Sounds accurate, I suppose."

They were still talking in line until Akiho noticed, with some disappointment, that they were standing outside the store. She kept her loose grin on her face.

"It was nice talking to you…" She frowned. They hadn't even introduced themselves. Wow, she was slipping today.

A spot of pink appeared on pallid cheeks. "Yuuya," he said, looking away in embarrassment. Thinking the same thing. It was kind of sweet. "Kuga Yuuya."

She'd seen that name somewhere before. But it wasn't important now. "Rindou Akiho. Pleasure to meet you."

He dipped his head in a slight imitation of a bow. "The pleasure is mine as well."

She took her leave first, in order to save the cold items in her bag. She could feel Yuuya's eyes on her as she left and pretended her face wasn't burning.

"Get a hold of yourself, _"_ she said under her breath. "You have more important things to do, you idiot."

There was no point in wanting who you couldn't have.

* * *

Kuga Yuuya stepped out of the lift of his apartment and let out a sigh of exhaustion. His V-Pet beeped soothingly against the fabric of his pants pocket and he chuckled dryly to himself.

"Black," he ordered softly, collecting his remaining energy. "Bring up tonight's numbers and emails on my computer, if you don't mind."

Another beep, this of obedience.

Yuuya lifted the device and pointed the infrared port towards his television screen. The Digimon's small pixels vanished from the phone and he sighed again. There was one casual email, right after he had said that. It figured.

 _'Going to be late. Hunting.'_

Yuuya rubbed his eyes and went to make dinner. Looked like he was going to have to stay up late again. The pains of being an older brother.

Black growled from his television screen and a red exclamation point appeared next to his icon.

Yuuya smiled. "Seems like someone's playing in GIGO servers. We can't have that, now can we? Go ahead and take a look around. I will be with you momentarily."

At least the wait would be interesting.

* * *

 _ **A/N:**_ And we're about at the end of the backed up material so here's where I basically take the reins and run. Don't worry Onix, I promise to stick to the main plot.

 _Omurice_ * - A Western style influenced dish of an omelette made with fried rice, typically topped with ketchup.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter Four: Hit the Punch Line**

A day or so later (after various coping mechanisms were used) Rina sat at a table in the local arcade with Akiho, chewing on fresh pizza. Akiho blew on hers, V-Pet loose in her fingers. "So he's _still_ following you?" she asked, spitting out mushroom.

Akiho sighed and cut off the crust. "Yep. You'd think me shoving my knee into his groin would be a deterrent." But whoever Kurosugi was off the internet, he kept right on slipping away from every legal method she used to get rid of him. Even the appeal to GIGO hadn't gotten a response yet.

"Some people have all the kinks," Rina mused, licking off tomato sauce. Akiho shot her a look and earned a shameless grin. "You sure you don't wanna go home? Avoid turning him into a pretzel and all that?"

Akiho shook her head and took a sip of her soda. "Nah, i need to be a nicer person. They're your friends... boyfriends."

"Only one is my boyfriend," Rina corrected through a mouthful of melted cheese. "Taiga's a good guy though. He'll like you eventually."

Akiho tried not to smile too fondly. "I'm not good with most people you know that." That was an understatement. She had lost a lot of her comfort with society over the years.

Rina waved her hand. "Better than me, I just lie to them." Akiho flicked her nose. "Ow!"

"Bad thoughts. Stop having them."

"Who's having bad thoughts?" A familiar voice asked. Both girls saw Niko come up to them and - while he looked a little put out Akiho was there - sit down next to Rina. He reached over to Rina's shoulder and rubbed it, squeezing gently. It was the most he'd seen people get physically affectionate in public ever, so he was trying it out (even though Rina usually kissed his brains out without caring in the least). "I swear Rina, if you're having sad thoughts again after all you did to me last night..."

Akiho let out a snort, failing to hide it in her napkin. "If she is, I'm sure you know how to handle that." She took another bite of food and offered him the box, putting her head back on her arms for pillows.

Rina made an amused face and stuck out her tongue. She leaned to his touch. "No jealousy, Aki."

Akiho looked up long enough to blow a raspberry. "Hey, I've apparently got a guardian angel. Willing to commit brother killing too." She played with her V-Pet, the Digimon on screen waving at her in fond exasperation. "Stop fussing, Tori, I feeding you." It beeped. "Yes, you. I love you. But you fussing. Stoppiiittt."

Rina giggled at Akiho and her cheerful banter at her best friend.

Niko couldn't help but blush a little from embarrassment. Of course he knew what to do. Rina didn't get upset nearly as often he did, but he knew gentle hugs and kisses were usually all that was needed to dispel what bothered her and send her back into her cuddly self, at least when they were in private. He couldn't help but raise an eyebrow, however. "Who you planning to murder?" He asked. "Kurosugi? Because I think you might need to get in line. Taiga heard you last night before he got all the way up the stairs."

Rina snorted. "Taiga may have to get behind _her_. He's been stalking her for the past couple of days." She smiled, a slightly glazed over expression. "Aki doesn't take well to that sort of thing."

"Hello pot, have you spoken to kettle yet?" Akiho deadpanned before lifting her head to smile at Niko. "Sorry, don't think I've actually introduced myself yet. I'm Rindou Akiho, her flatmate. Thanks for taking care of Rina for me." She bowed a little in her seat and rested her head on the table again.

"You make me sound hopeless," Rina huffed, puffing out her cheeks.

"You're too domestic to be hopeless," was the muffled reply. "You're just impatient."

Rina turned to Niko, eyes big and doe-bright. "I'm not that bad, am I?"

"Nice to meet you." Niko didn't mean to sound distracted by Rina's doe eyes had a very big effect on him. They were like red colored black holes that sucked all his attention into them and never let them go. "N-no Rina, you're not." Partly because in his mind 'domestic' included him coming home from some office job to her wearing nothing but an apron. A fantasy she already knew and tittered about. "I think you could be. Yanno. If we ever got married."

Akiho giggled. "Is that a big if or a small if, Rina?" She couldn't help herself, any opportunity to see Rina blush was one she would take. Slightly out of payback, and slightly out of curiosity. Thankfully, this one succeeded. Rina's cheeks turned a brilliant pink and she looked away from the both, huffing into her hood.

"A-Are you already saying you want to, Niko?" she managed, trying to control her expression while shooting Akiho half-hearted glares. "You're moving fast, even for me!"

"I-" Niko's face flushed as well and he couldn't help looking away either. This was something he'd rather talk about in private, really. Where it would be less awkward and Rina's friend couldn't tease them about it but. Well. Niko had be giving it a lot of thought lately. Especially last night, when she allowed him to think. He'd come to a decision then and had been working out how exactly to make it work. But he was sure it would. "I... Really wouldn't mind, if you wanted too. You know. Get married."

Rina's eyes went wide and she stared at him, outright. "Ah, um..." Her face was red. "O-Okay... that's good, right?" She looked over at Akiho now, looking quite a bit like a curious bird. "It's okay, right?"

Akiho's eyes went oddly soft. She reached over the table and mussed up Rina's hair. "Course it is, dummy," she said with an affectionate smile. "So long as you two can work things out, I think it's just fine, don't you?" It, to an outsider, would be odd for that exchange to happen. But for them, it really wasn't. She looked at Niko as she said that last part.

Rina nodded, looking a little shy. "Yeah... yeah... It is."

Niko looked away. He needed her to stop making that expression and for her friend to stop looking so god damn _knowing._ So he reached for a change of subject. "You see Taiga yet, Rina?"

Rina broke her own embarrassment with a snort. "Nah. He's probably still asleep." They had left a while after he had yelled at them to to go to an actual room… he could be so weird sometimes. He was just jealous, she figured.

Niko grimaced. He had gone home, just to make sure his dad hadn't just forgotten to tell his coworkers he had gone home to crash on the couch rather than disappear, but no such luck. He had filed a police report, like a good citizen, but it hadn't taken away the sick hollowness in his stomach.

"I hope he turns up."

Niko started, and looked over at Akiho. Her pink, almost red he noticed, eyes were watching him. Despite the slightly dazed look of a half asleep person, she barely blinked. That was a hell of a lot of sincerity from someone who could easily break into his best friend's house.

"… Thanks." Really, what else were you supposed to even _say_ to that?

Rina only grinned at him as she crammed half a slice of pizza into her mouth. He wrinkled his nose. Damn it Rina.

He fiddled with his V-Pet for a while, then sighed. Maybe he could log in and get a few matches in. The only real challenges in the coliseum at this point were the other world ranked players. Sure, the weaker players were fun and had good strategies, but Sashenka was _tough_. A bit unnaturally tough, it seemed sometimes.

Still. It was something to do.

It was roughly about an hour of teaching kids to press the right button and getting a nice workout before a new challenger popped up on one screen. Niko glanced at Sashenka's avatar. He was stretching out on the coliseum floor. He still seemed good to go. With a shrug, he clicked the 'accept' button. The holographic screen flickers and clears the coliseum floor. Then, the Gaomon appeared on screen, front paws raised in his red boxing gloves. His opponent appeared, a green goblin brandishing his club.

A message window appeared between them:

"To the victor goes the spoils."

What the actual hell.

He looked up at the gamer handle. Well… shit. Kurosugi was either bored or stupid, or both. Probably both. This would be a pain in the ass.

* * *

Rina looked up from her phone. "Did you see what way Niko went?"

Akiho grunted sleepily. "There's no empty alcoves to make out with him with, Rina."

Rina thumped her gently on the arm. "I _know_ that. Geez, you make it sound like that's all we do."

"I'd do it." Seemed like fun to her.

Rina sobered a little. "I really don't care if you do. I can't really talk."

Akiho adjusted her head on her arm pillow. "I need one good trait about myself. Sticking to the written word has to count for something, right?" Rina kicked her under the table and she grinned to herself. "I frustrated you, I win. Italian tonight."

Rina huffed and cast her eyes around in order to distract herself from her flatmate managing to get under her skin, again. Of course, it was Akiho, it was good of her to be able to do that but whatever! Hmpf! As she looked around the room, she glimpsed Niko's slicked back blond hair. It was pretty obvious in the sea of brown and black but whatever. She should have noticed. He was playing Digimon. All right. Seemed good. Then her eyes flcikered to the opponent. "Aki, you have your bowie knife?"

Akiho lifted her head. "No. Butterfly. Why?" She followed her gaze and grimaced. "We can't be in public, Ri. That's not healthy."

Rina got to her feet. "We know all about what's healthy and good yes we do. He is unhealthy and is going to go after my boyfriend because reasons."

"Isn't Niko pretty good?"

Rina huffed. "it's the _principle_ of the thing!" She began to stomp over, fully intent on grabbing this guy by the back of his black jacket collar and throwing him across the room into the furthest arcade machine just because she _could._

She did not get there in time to do so, however. A black, blue, and orange blur dropped in from nowhere and his tennis-shoed foot hit Kurosugi right on the head, causing him to crumple. It was pretty anime, if Rina was going to be honest.

"Taiga!" she chirped. "Nice hit."

Taiga rubbed his heel and grimaced. "Uh… yeah, thanks. Any idea how I did that?"

Rina opened her mouth to answer, likely with something sarcastic, but then all of the lights went out.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter Five – System Error 707**

Yuuya ignored the buzzing of his phone for a good half an hour, at least.

The second it had started and he had checked it, Black watched his human turn over and go back to sleep under the pale blue duvet. Black hadn't said anything, mostly because the phone identification had said Kurosugi, and Black knew better than to indulge that human child in what they desired. It merely tended to exhaust his human, and it was supposed to be the parents' job to take care of them before the sibling.

So he ignored it and went back to his routine file scanning. A few little blips, but nothing in particular that struck him as unusual. Except for that purple one. No one color coded their files anymore, if his records were correct.

Then the phone buzzed again. And again. Until it got distracting to the point of Black seeing red at the corners of his eyes. So he answered it with a grunt.

"Hey! Finally!"

Black huffed out a breath, waving a claw at the screen. The other Digimon grunted back, mohawk drooping with sweat.

"Yeah, ye, strong and silent, I getcha. Why ain't yer human answerin'?!" His voice grumbled out like gravel thrown into a cement mixer. Black, unamused, merely grunted again.

"Asleep."

"It's like: eleven in the morning in their world, brah."

Black shrugged. " _Your_ human, Tyrone."

'Tyrone', as the Goblimon was so named, let out a low sigh. "Yeah… I know, I know. He's a moocher and a right vile bag of bones, but he my mooching, vile bag o' bones for the moment. And, 'sides, we're at the arcade. The entire thing's trying to short-circuit."

Black twitched. "The game?"

"I wish." Tyrone picked up his club and turned around. "Somethin's trying to come in from our neck of the woods."

Black hesitated. Tyrone had lied for that human before. But ultimately, that was a security risk that his Yuuya or their family could not afford even attempting to ignore beyond this. So he zapped himself into the phone and pressed the ringtone noise at pure volume.

Hearing his partner swear and nearly fall out of bed was admittedly kind of funny too. He was lucky that oldest human had given him no reason to be afraid of them. That he knew of. He wanted to eat that human. Badly. Like he wanted a prime rib that wasn't made from a plant.

"What did he do now?" Yuuya muttered as he sat up from his ungainly position on the floor.

"Not him, bossman," Tyrone called from the smart TV. "Something's trying to hack the game."

Yuuya twitched, a full-body movement that made shivering look ordinary. Then he sneered at the room. "Black, get into the restricted files on this side, if you could. For all we know this is a decoy. Tyrone, tell Kuro I'm borrowing you."

Tyrone waved his club. "Aye, aye, and he'll listen too." He chuffed.

"Tell him if he doesn't, he'll get to enjoy me calling his mother on him." Yuuya was finished getting dressed at this point, and had gone to grab any cheap, quick food he could manage to keep near him. Black watched him silently until Yuuya glanced over to the small mark on the screen. "Go on Black." He settled back into his favorite chair, smiling now. "I'm perfectly capable of keeping an eye on two Digimon and two situations by now. Keep me up to speed."

Black waited a moment more, searching his human's face through the distance, pixels image on screen. Then, he grunted and disappeared.

He had no doubt his human was perfectly capable. But being _okay_ was a perfectly separate category.

Yuuya sighed and opened a can of juice. _Maybe I'll catch yesterday's little delinquent. That'd be convenient._

He knew better than to rely on convenience for much of anything.

* * *

"What… the hell."

Sashenka popped back into Niko's watch, waving his boxing glove covered paws in alarm as the screen from the coliseum went dark. Not that the rest of the building wasn't going dark but that was what he was staring at. He looked around and for a moment he swore he saw glowing red eyes about half a meter from his face and almost swore outright.

"Rina?" he finally said. The eyes blinked. Yep that was her. "God that scared me. Don't do that."

"I'm not doing anything!"

 _Your eyes are glowing in the freaking dark,_ he wanted to say, but he didn't. They weren't glowing now. "Taiga, you all right?"

"Yeah. Should I not be?" His friend sounded mildly disgruntled. "I mean my feet sting but I kicked that guy in the head."

Which was damn funny. He'd figure out how in the hell it happened later. He lifted his watch and turned on the flashlight. Other people were doing the same beside them and the room lit up with tiny lights. Rina did not. In fact, she winced.

Niko caught Taiga by the arm, just to make sure he didn't try to do it again in the dark. "Bro, it's you, I have to check."

"Oh thanks."

Rina's red eyes, still aglow, turn away from them. She moved away, probably to her flatmate. "Be right back," she called, likely so they didn't worry. He grimaced.

"We can barely see and she goes off like that." Taiga snorted, lifting his cell phone. "The power's completely dead. Like, there's no generator dead. Our phone bill is going to be up a creek."

"Really wanna be worried about a phone bill right now?" Taiga turned on his app to see his partner's floating form on screen. His shoulders fell with relief before he noticed the way the little sprite stared at him, so heavy and old. He could never see Fergus' eyes, covered by either a mask of a shroud of golden light. Either way, he had no idea what to see or if he wanted to. But he always knew when he was being stared it. IT was really uncomfortable, honestly. "I mean, aren't the doors electronic?"

"They can still be pushed." Niko didn't need light to see Taiga's eye twitch at the sound of Rina's flatmate talking as she came closer. He was really super bad with first impressions. Worse than Niko, and Niko still remembered his early years of not bowing. He was a natural blond, not some kind of punk. "Worse comes to worse, we can knock them open," Akiho continued steadily. "But we should probably move towards the fringes of the room. Otherwise we'll get trampled when the shock wears off. And if anyone can risk using a hotspot, we can check what's going on on the 'net."

Taiga twitched a bit and Niko guessed the idea of agreeing with someone who was possibly a burglar in their spare time -and snooty about it too- warred at his inner sensibilities to not get trampled. But he agreed so off they went to as obscure a counter as possible. It was occupied by one person, and Rina kept staring at them like they ought to somehow poof in the next ten seconds. Niko wondered who for the fifteen seconds it took for the boy to scoff and leave.

"Oh damn," Rina muttered. "God forbid Kurosugi have to move."

Taiga twitched to stand up, but Rina poked him in the forehead. He subsided and rubbed his head. The darkness had been helping until everyone had turned on their dang lights. Niko snorted and turned on his own mobile hotspot.

"We'll figure out the bill later," he said, and the way he dismissed everything all at once made Taiga's stomach clench. It was kind of annoying to be honest.

Rina used it with gusto but Akiho did not. She leaned over Rina's shoulder to watch instead. Rina perked up at this, for some reason. He had to wonder about that girl sometimes. Taiga looked at the screen of Niko's phone, which lit up with the familiar GIGO logo.

"You know, in a video game, we'd all be slaves right now," Niko deadpanned. Akiho laughed and the sound was… weird. Taiga didn't think a human being could make a sound that sharp. Made his skin crawl.

"We're all slaves to the bureaucracy," she replied and Niko smiled before he could stop himself. Grudgingly impressed. Taiga figured she couldn't really be that bad or Rina wouldn't… live with her? They lived together. He supposed it wasn't that important.

Still, she broke into his apartment. Who did that without restraint in this day and age?

Then the back wall of monitors exploded into life and a Digimon appeared on screen, a woman clothed in black and gray with tattered wings. Someone's LadyDevimon by the looks of things. They spread their wings as they bowed, red eyes aglow.

"maybe it's a GIGO campaign?" someone offered ahead of them. Another voice let out a snort.

"Yeah, right, and they'd lose this much money to do it."

The murmurs rose up as the digimon backed away from the image. She waved her sharp clawed fingers. "Hello young humans," she said with a lazy smirk. "I am LadyDevimon. On behalf of my comrades, we come to you children across the world and ask for your assistance here in our world. You could call it a game campaign, if you need to. We're going to offer you an opportunity to travel farther than you ever could have-"

"Are you going to fix the lights too?" someone shouted and angry cries of agreement erupted from the floor below.

"Perhaps," she replied and the whole room fell dead silent. Then, the lights turned on. "Satisfied?"

Taiga and Niko looked at each other. Crap.

Taiga had just been assuming this was a prerecorded message, being streamed all over the world instantaneously through some well hacked twitch feed or something. But apparently this was live from somewhere. Which mean they were hacking in real time, maybe they could find the-

"I wouldn't try hunting us down," the woman's voice continued. "Your devices might explode. Now, to continue. A tournament is going to be run, starting today, a global event to test skill and intelligence and ingenuity. If you make it all the way through, you have a shot at winning a grand prize, which will be revealed at a later date. The choice to enter is entirely yours, however, why miss out on all the fun?" She bowed. "We do hope to see you there."

Then the screen went blank, quickly replaced with a GIGO logo and the shortest briefing of issues that Niko had ever seen. It basically came down to 'no freaking idea, folks'.

"Well, I'm in," Akiho offered after a moment.

"Seriously." Niko stared at her and she shrugged. "I mean, that Digimon talked, like, actually talked."

"So?"

Taiga actually couldn't help but agree with her. That didn't feel weird. No it, it felt like that was how it was supposed to be. He didn't say this aloud though. Something very different was tickling his brain, like a reminder. A reminder to find someone, to be there. To heal someone. He wasn't sure what that had to do with demons and a tournament, but hey. Maybe it did.

"I'll try it," he finally said.

Niko groaned. "Fine."

Rina only beamed as wide as her head. Lunatic.

* * *

A young woman sat back on a beaten old futon, the sleeves of her sweater frayed with use. Looking to her right sat a steaming, slightly grimy cup of tea. She nodded at it and sipped it with no small amount of pleasure. It was the only hot drink she could stand.

"Thank you, grandfather." Once again, the monotone of her own voice grated at her ears, but the old Digimon only smiled through his white beard.

"Think nothing of it child." He sat beside her. "Do you think your little game will have any effect, Mirei-kun?"

Mikagura Mirei rested her chin on her hand. "Well," she said with a small sigh. "I suppose it might… it's quite a large pool after all. Even if it doesn't, this parallel world may just find more soldiers, and even that is a boon. But to find a person with Decode, with the natural Digitter in their bloodstream, will be infinitely more difficult." She chewed on her lip, a new gesture she had picked up. "But if I have it, that will make work much easier, yes?"

"It just might." He looked outside and let out a heavy sigh. "But it won't bring these children home."

She placed her smaller hand on his bulky shoulder. Despite not even reaching her waist, Mirei was half certain he was one of the few living creatures who could throw her into a wall with ease. "We'll revive this place, too. I'll find a way."

He tapped her with his staff. "Don't ruin my image, lass."

Mirei did not disagree, merely logged out from the GIGO mainframe. Now began the waiting game.

* * *

 _A/n: It's baacckkkkkkk. Run._


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter Six – Conversational Enterprises**

Yuuya had no idea how angry he was supposed to be right now.

He was supposed to feel that way, correct? His father's own systems had been hacked by what seemed to be perfectly cognizant Digimon alone. No, that had to not be the case. No one would be able to just do that. Not even Black could break through the toughest of GIGO security without his help, and even on those rare occasions they tended to get caught. Highly inconvenient and unhelpful.

And yet someone had done it. That really should tick him off. But instead he was smiling at his screen. It probably wasn't a healthy smile. He needed to get that checked. But was it a Digimon? It couldn't be just a Digimon. Even those cared for by humans had a small tendency to go overboard, leaving tracks to trace and easy paths. Still…

"Nothing yet, Black?"

His partner grunted. "It seems so. No trace of them even touching the network."

"Well, we can rule out that it was a competing company then." He sighed, trying to control his smile and failing. Even his partner's scolding taps on the screen weren't helping. Honestly, this might just turn out to be the most fun that Yuuya had had since getting Black and well… fixing him. You stopped getting many challenges after you managed to defeat almost everyone in your path. At the sound of the shower finally going dead, he called out to the other side of the room. "If you used up all the hot water shaving again, the water bill's coming out of your credit card."

"It damn well better not!" Kurosugi came out with a towel on his head and boxer shorts, and Yuuya privately thanked god he liked to keep the blinds shuttered first thing in the morning. No one needed to be exposed to his younger brother's body in any sense of the word at an ungodly hour, least of all him. "You already billed me for three other damages."

"Then stop deleting Tamer partners and getting caught." Yuuya didn't turn from his screen, typing and scribbling as new data flowed on screen. "Actually, just stop deleting people's digimon. Start there. Father would be cross if he picked you up from prison. I'm not old enough." Kurosugi flicked his wet towel with a scowl in the general direction of the computer, causing Yuuya's eyes to narrow. _"Kuro."_

His brother stepped back. "Yeesh, sorry." He slouched where he stood before his curiosity got the better of him and he came over to the giant screen. "It's that bad then, Nii-san?"

Yuuya snatched a piece of melon before his brother could grab it. He really hated using two digimon at once. For things that weren't supposed to be that innately connected to your psyche and physical battle, using two made him feel like the one time he'd tried recreational drugs on a dare. (It was almost like they were completely real or something.) After a few seconds of chewing and swallowing, he nodded. "It's more that we can't figure out where the break in was, let alone if they stole anything." He sighed. "It had to have been a Tamer, but considering there are Tamers all over the world, narrowing it down won't be easy."

Kuro yawned and took a strawberry. "Couldn't you just look into who has a LadyDevimon?"

Yuuya sighed. "Doesn't narrow it down much. That could have also been a decoy to throw us off. It's certainly starting to feel that way." He rubbed his temples with the pads of his fingers. "We can't cancel that tournament either. Since we cannot get in or out of whatever trap they made, they can just waltz back on in."

"So we have to go along with this thing?" Kuro mussed up his already rumpled hair. It looked stupid, in Yuuya's opinion, but no gel could fix their hair. Kurosugi's mother had tried. "I'mma compete then," he said with a grin, the cocky one that never failed to piss off at least one person a day if they dealt with him. "Shouldn't be too hard."

Yuuya rolled his eyes and went back to typing. "There are at least half an arcade room's worth of people baying for your blood. I know one by name who wants to wreck your organs, dear brother. I wouldn't recommend it."

Kurosugi scowled, and it was a real one this time, not the playing around one that just got him into trouble. "You don't think I can do it."

Yuuya didn't even look up. "No, not really." He tried to sound flippant but firm. It was kind of the only way to deal with his brother. "Nyanko Tamer's probably going to make an appearance. You know, the number one ranked tamer internationally who has three losses to their record, all to the same person, and none in official tournaments?"

The scowl deepened. Yuuya ignored him for a moment. "You never believe in me," his brother finally said after a moment.

Yuuya glanced at him, knowing exactly what he was going to see if he did. "The feeling tends to be mutual. Besides, I'm not saying 'don't.' You never listen when I do."

Kurosugi mimed kicking his brother's chair. "Then say something smart." He went to head to his room. "You gonna join?"

Yuuya glanced at Black, who nodded a bit too fast, a bit too "Suppose I'll have to." Yuuya rubbed his eyes. "Protect the family heirloom and all of that."

His brother scoffed and almost slammed the door to his room. Yuuya clicked his tongue. Honestly, what _could_ he say at this point? He was too old for incessant praise from his brother just for being around. They were both too old for that sort of thing.

An envelope icon popped up on his screen. Black slid his long claws over it before Yuuya could tell him not to. Not that it mattered, nothing happened. The envelope only opened up and popped a message on screen.

"Let's be friends," he read.

Yuuya sat back for a moment. Then he laughed, laughing so hard his brother actually opened the door with concern.

"Sure," he replied to the room and on the screen. "Why not?"

Black grunted, but did not stop him. Being involved would be better than being dragged into it. And any prey that could actually escape was always worth the chase.

* * *

Within the span of three days, GIGO had announcements pertaining to this new tournament. There were posters on the online boards but Taiga had seen a few paper posters all over various windows as he went home from school every day.

He tried to ignore it. Sure, he was going to participate, no doubt about it. His poor impulse control had already locked him into doing it. But… even so. Whoever participated in the tournament was probably going to be touch at best, and violent, at worst. His partner wasn't one who fought aggressively. Fergus didn't have to. Then again, the last time he had participated in a tournament almost everyone had just gaped at his partner before surrendering. Almost. Niko had somehow whooped him and gotten his ass handed to him by somebody oce the tournament hit nationals. Some 'Nyanko Tamer' fellow or some such, the best of the best.

Taiga sighed. He really didn't want to fight that one. They tended to make it all seem so fun and easy and corner their opponent into surrendering, like a game. The coliseum sure made it that way. Rarely any lasting damage, a harmless gym and everything. But it wasn't. Fergus felt real. He lasted way too long inside a simple children's toy. He'd seen people play with those other kid. Those critters died at least once a week. But Fergus? No, Fergus hadn't even made a hint of it. Just in case, he had to keep taking care of him but still.

His V-Pet warmed in his pocket, causing Taiga to pause at the other side of the crosswalk. He grinned. "Thanks, Fergus. I'm all right."

" _You're fretting, child."_ Taiga froze as the voice continued, almost aligned with the beeping sounds of the toy. _"You have never been able to fool me, young man."_

Taiga shook his head. "I… I think I'm imagining things. I can hear my Digimon talking."

There was a momentary pause. Then Fergus continued. _"Child, I've always been talking. We Digimon are always speaking. It is only that humans that have trouble hearing us."_

Taiga didn't leave his spot for a good few minutes. Then he hitched his bag higher over his shoulder and booked it right to the grocery store.

" _Taiga?"_

He couldn't believe it. His partner had been talking the whole time and he hadn't heard his words evn once once. He wasn't sure if he wanted to punch himself in the damn face or not. But at the same time…

Taiga felt his cheeks split. Digimon were alive, they were really alive and real and…

"We've been putting actual creatures into dog fights," he said aloud. As the realization caught up with his brain, he moved over to a park bench.

Fergus made a noise like a wary chuckle. _"Child, it is not entirely like that, Your human programs usually make the whole scenario much less of a threat to us. Plenty of Digimon see it as training. Nikolai's Sashenka for example. He enjoys our fights for the exercise."_ There was a quiet exhale of breath. _"It is what makes Tamers like that Kurosugi boy and his ilk so frightening for little ones."_

Great, now he had a whole other reason to punch that guy's lights out. Not only did he serial kill people's friends, he really was murdering living beings.

" _I do believe you kicking him the way you did was a good start to his comeuppance, child. Though not a course of action I would recommend repeating. It doesn't change people's minds."_

No, but it certainly made him feel better sometimes. People like that… they needed to see that they were wrong, what it meant to hurt people. Then they would change. It was just that simple.

He paused outside the store, ticking off his list on his fingers.

" _I will remind you if you forget something Taiga. Do not worry."_

Taiga's smile widened and his chest warmed. "Right, thanks."

It felt really nice to be able to depend on someone besides himself and not have it feel like pity. Also, he wouldn't look crazy. People would just assume he had a Bluetooth in his ear or something.

As he snagged a basket, he turned over the at least sixty questions he could now ask his partner. Like, did he eat? Did Digimon actually sleep in V-Pets? Did they _live_ in V-Pets? What were the others like? What did he hate? Did he like having all those battles?

"Can anyone else hear you?" Taiga finally asked,, barely moving his lips. He was already a hermit, he didn't need to be considered a demented hermit. "Like Niko? Or Rina?"

Fergus didn't speak at first. Then he sighed. _"Niko cannot, likely for the same reason as you. He's left Sashenka in quite a state. I'm starting to think the dog's going to yank his own fur out."_ He chuckled quietly as Taiga counted coins. _"Your friend Rina, she can hear me perfectly. I keep expecting her to carry on a conversation while you two are around, just to see what you'll do."_

Taiga laughed outright. Yep, that was Rina, though it was probably good that she hadn't. "How do you know anyway?" He grimaced at the price of the meat. That was way too expensive. But he needed it. He'd been starving like he hadn't in years since that weird djinn dream of his.

"The way she talks to her V-Pet when you and Niko play those odd games of yours. They have quite interesting conversations."

Those games they could never get her to play. Well, that might explain why. Maybe?

He reached for the meat anyway, budget be damned. It would be good for him. He saw pink out of the corner of his eye and blinked as that Akiho chick brushed past him, snagging the lower red meat off of the shelf.

"Are you stalking me?" he blurted out before he could stop himself. Oh that was a social taboo, great going Taiga.

Akiho blinked up at him, pink eyes completely baffled. Her right hand lowered slowly, as if having risen by reflex and reflex alone.

He heard a scoffing sound muffled by fabric. _"He wishes."_

Akiho slapped her hand on her bag. "Rude."

" _Not as rude as you."_

"Tori." The beeping stopped and Akiho tilted her head. "I like the prices here. Were you getting some?"

Taiga hesitated. Even he knew what small talk sounded like, though he sucked at it. He wasn't sure if he wanted to do it with someone like her. "Yeah. It's pricey though."

"Worse near our apartment." She leaned up past him and took a couple. "The quality's worse too. Come on, I'll get yours."

Taiga just stared, only broken from his stupor as she went on by Fergus' loud, impolite snort. "What, no! You can't do that! I don't need you to."

"Cheaper for me if I do," Akiho replied breezily. "Think of it like a repayment for breaking into your apartment."

"That's not how you apologize for things like that!" He almost shouted but he could feel customers staring at him as it is.

"It's much more productive than getting you a new lock, isn't it?"

Taiga made a face, trying to ignore his partner's too loud laughter as he went after her. She wasn't chatty but she was chatty enough that he couldn't refuse her not buying him the dinner supplies and by the smirk on her face she knew it too.

Only when they were out of the store and he was about to walk away did the realization hit him like a truck. He whirled on Akiho, who was adjusting her own items. "Hey! Hold on!"

She blinked up at him, putting her V-Pet in her bag. "Yeah."

"Can you – do you-" God he was bad at conversations. He didn't even want to ask this question.

Fergus, being Fergus, did speak up. "Young lady, can you hear me?"

Akiho blinked and perhaps the surprise of the question got an honest answer from her mouth. "Of course I can."

" _How?"_ Oh there we go a full sentence. Taiga thanked his brain.

Akiho shrugged, scratching at the pink hair falling at her ear. "Whatever hurt me in life opened my ears, maybe? Tori is precious to me and hearing my voice keeps her okay, I guess. Only thing I could think of. Why?"

"I… I haven't-" Taiga couldn't help the swell of anger and guilt rising in his throat at her seemingly harmless words. "I haven't."

"Ooh." Akiho tapped her chin, catching on. "Well, I don't know why I can hear it and other people can't. It may just be that even the game doesn't feel real enough to some people." Her expression changed, but for whatever reason, Taiga couldn't call it an earnest smile. "I wouldn't worry about it though. Now you can hear him, and that makes everything easier"

She bowed in a way and hurried into the crowd. Taiga felt his hands starting to shake and made himself go the opposite way, towards his house.

All this time, he could have had someone to talk to. All this time…

He was in such a hurry that he didn't feel the blue eyes watching him from across the street. Fergus did, but he didn't say a word.


	7. Chapter 7

_Warnings: Triggered character, PTSD, depression, implied child abuse, emotional abuse, murder and or violence (this might be the chapter this goes to M I most certainly hope not), child abandonment (alluded to because of Niko's situation), also unidentified trauma and memory blocking._

* * *

 **Chapter Seven – What Tethers Us**

"Rina," Taiga groaned as he settled into his chair. "Where have you been?"

Rina frowned (which he didn't like, Shinomiya Rinas did not normally frown) and leaned her head over him. This unfortunately gave him an up close and personal view of her chest. Even with her own school uniform covering it, he saw her without a shirt so often that it wasn't hard to know. But she looked at him and he could easily see her red eyes over all of, well, that. "In class?" She could sound so earnest. Taiga didn't know people who could just sound like that. Taiga heard himself, he buried his problems as well as Niko did.

"I haven't seen you all weekkkkkk!" he whined. "I've seen _Niko_ more than I've seen you and he's off like he's packing a bunker because of his dad- anything on that?"

Rina flopped in Niko's chair (he knew where that was going) and huffed. "Course not. The dad's still missing, he's worried about paying rent, and he won't talk. I mean, we'll do other stuff like-"

"Stop." Taiga raised his hand. _"Really_ don't need the details." He grimaced as he thought over what little she had said. "Crap. Means I'm probably screwed too, huh?" Just what he needed on top of exams, seriously...

Rina shook her head. "I bet you guys are at least all right for like a year. I've snuck looks at Mr. Petrov's finance chart thingy in his office."

Taiga really didn't want to know why she was in his office. And yet he asked, "Why?"

"I wanted to look at his books." Rina gave him a displeased grunt at the expression Taiga wore. "Just 'cause it's complicated..."

"Complicated is an understatement, Rina." Niko almost fell right on top of her, resisting by a single thread and a flush on his face. Taiga couldn't help but snicker, at least this time around. "Dad's books would be more money than what he's got in the bank, I bet you."

Rina smiled but looking at her, Taiga could see it didn't reach her eyes. She could never smile quite right when they mentioned family. No that Taiga could blame her.

So, before that could possibly go horribly wrong, he changed the subject. "Rina, your flatmate is weird."

Niko coughed on a sip of his thermos coffee. "Bro."

Taiga glowered at him without any heat. "She is. She bought me meat. Meat is expensive!"

Rina giggled, back to normal again. "Yeah she does that. I should have warned you."

"It's weird," Taiga grumbled. "People don't just do that."

" _Most people_ you _know don't do that,"_ he heard and Taiga looked around. Only then did he see Rina carefully flick something at her belt. Oh.

" _Yes,"_ Fergus confirmed with a small chortle. "That was V.V. He's quite the hen."

Well with Rina to look after, I'd be a hen too. Taiga felt this smile twitch and shook his head. "Morning, bro."

Niko grunted. "Least you didn't say it was a good one." He raised an eyebrow at Rina. "Oi, my seat."

Rina stuck out her tongue and got up. "Fine! I'll go back to my class! See if I care!" She sauntered away with a smirk, leaving Taiga sniggering at his best friend.

"Shut up, man," Niko muttered, face cherry red. "You're not the one she does that to all the time."

Taiga bit his tongue to keep a certain 'I wish I was' comment from spilling out. "How's the house?" he asked instead because this would matter to him, if it hadn't already started to. Considering Yakov had adopted him all of those years ago, he was probably in just as much danger as Niko himself. "How… how screwed are we?"

Niko blinked, staring at him for a good moment. "Dude, we're fine."

Taiga glowered at him. "Why is it when you say that I don't believe you?"

"Cause you're paranoid, that's why!"

Taiga made to counter that, but the teacher slid the door open at that instant.

He really hated when Niko pointedly did not answer his questions.

* * *

This world is so small.

To someone who had spent their life in a vast, unforgiving space that threatened to swallow you whole, the city of Tokyo was mind numbing in how tiny it was. It was almost frustrating, to an extent.

For little Mi, atop the Sky Tree, it was just about perfect.

She could see everything from up here, all the good and the bad. If she tried, she could hear it all too. She wasn't dumb enough to try however. It was all very overwhelming to someone like her, who was so used to near silence.

"I wonder what those kids are doing now," she asked a surprisingly high bird, one definitely not a pigeon. Well, to her it wasn't too surprising. She had never seen Earth birds up close like this before. She wondered if it would taste good. "It's the afternoon, so they're probably in school, right?" She sat down on a railing. "Well, that's no good! If I get to them with all of these spectators, they'll learn to recognize me." Her bare legs swung against the metal. She wasn't particularly afraid of falling. After all, there were much worse things to fall from than a human contraption. "After all, in this world, people have all these camera phones and social media… I'd be doomed in an instant. I wonder how much they would see."

She wrinkled her nose and slammed her hands against the bar. "Gross!" The bird took off and she laughed. "No one should see that, not even you. That's for when I can finally grow up!" She spun about on the railing, almost unaware of the passing news copter that was seemingly headed in her direction. "I will get taller this time, my body will curve, people will look at me beyond the scars on my chest. I will grow up and up and be loved like an adult, rather than a silly child~"

Mi let out a laugh. "What a nice dream I'm been having, to think that's even possible anymore." She faced towards the ground. "Oh well, that's enough of that, I think. Time to make a statement." She turned her head to the approaching helicopter. "But… oh right, you first, I guess."

She raised a hand and smoke swirled into flame in the center of her palm.

"What did Guilmon call this thing sometimes? Oh right!" She smiled even wider, purple eyes glowing blue.

" _Pyro Sphere!"_

* * *

Yuuya had learned over time to be acutely aware of his parents' moods. His stepmother was at her most dangerous when she was cordial, when her thoughts were at their most sharp and serene. Kurosugi had a habit of keeping her off balance with his stunts, which was good for Yuuya only until she reminded him that _he_ was supposed to look after her son while they were in school. Well, since his brother was fifteen, he doubted that would be the case for much longer unless he suddenly decided to start passing with higher than a forty-two* and get into a good high school. The woman would like that, to brag about the younger son. But since that was her default state, he had learned to adjust to it.

When his father strode into the room however, back straight, broad shoulders performing a line with his chest at an angle, _that_ was what made his mental alarm bells ring. When his father walked into the room and you forgot his meager height of barely over a meter tall (one of the few things Yuuya himself had gotten from his father.), Yuuya made sure to stay out of his way.

That meant _pain._ Pain like the past.

Not that he had to worry immediately. Some poor clerk interrupted the stride and nearly ended up shrinking under the business table. Sharp eyes waited until he saw a hint of toupee in a chair beside a sharply dressed man. Then Kenzo sat back. His secretary, one of the only people Yuuya would consider a friend in this place, sat beside him in silence. Eri's pleasant face was sculpted marble at the moment. You couldn't afford weakness here, not in the middle of a multibillion yen monopoly of the internet as the world knew it.

Yuuya moved carefully to his usual spot away from the windows. His father did not glance at him once, but he didn't relax. He knew better. The second he dropped his guard, he would be under those eyes and he wouldn't know why. Not until it was too late.

"Good afternoon, everyone." His father's voice was soft and genial, the most disarming of voices for a man that Yuuya had ever thought of and had sought to perfect, with mixed results. "Did you all have a nice break?"

Considering he was rushed here from his afternoon classes, Yuuya could safely say, no he did not. But he could guess why they were all here.

People murmured their assent. Beneath that sound, Yuuya could hear a faint hissing noise. He turned his head, but it was gone before he could see anything.

"Wonderful." Kenzo took the attention back to him the same way a whip cracked. "So then, any news on our little stalker in the systems? Have they returned?"

 _Of course they have._ Yuuya waited, however. He was sixteen. He had no voice until his father let him have one.

Kenzo regarded the room. "What, have you not been paying attention? Yuuya?"

"Two more noted appearances of a hacker, sir," he recited without thinking. He looked at the notes at his side. "I have reason to believe that there have been more."

Something hissed again. He felt eyes on him. They went ignored as he continued. "I suspect that we were only able to record these sightings because they wanted us to. They want us to know we're watching them."

Murmuring. Yuuya only sat back and stared out at them, smirk at his mouth because he could and because he knew he had done his part for the moment.

Just like his father wanted.

Black made his cell phone vibrate. He looked down. Slow, halting katakana and hiragana came up on screen.

' _Something is coming.'_

Yuuya texted with one thumb, as practiced. _'From where?'_

A pause. _'Window. Get down.'_

Yuuya didn't think again. He obeyed. He sent a screenshot of the messages to Eri just as the glass exploded and the room washed with heat. There were a lot of loud thumping sounds, sounds that Yuuya did not really want explained to him.

The hissing came at last, loud as a human voice. Then, however, it shifted slightly. Slowly, it continued to change until the room was filled with a child's tinkling, yet teary laughter. Something touched the glass soft and fleshy because it was too quiet for shoes. The glass tinkled. Someone whimpered. Eri?

The giggling stopped. _"Sorry about that. I'll fix that for you."_

Yuuya squinted his eyes open at the voice, at the words he didn't understand but somehow knew. Eri was alive. There was blood streaking down her face and small fingers reached towards her face. They stroked the bloody cut and Eri slumped over.

" _Oh wow, did she really have to faint? Poor thing."_ The little girl sighed. For a moment, her form shifted. Smaller, black and blue and scarred and _dragon_. _"Still, least she's not dead. I aimed just next to her and all."_

Then it was back to normal. She still didn't look at him, turning to the right instead. _"Hello, Mr. Kuga. How's your wife doing? Or should I say your mistress? Ahaha. Whichever, right? It's all the same to you."_

There was a low groan. Yuuya made himself open his eyes further, see more. See the other staff members lying on the floor, likely unconscious. Hopefully unconscious. And his father, collapsed to the side. His father's sharp eyes were nailed straight to that tiny girl. He couldn't tell if Kenzo was afraid or not. He was just focused, just angry.

Still, prone like that… he looked helpless.

It shouldn't make a lick of satisfaction in his gut. He had to help, but with what? A little girl had just shattered bulletproof windows and healed a cut in the span of at most three minutes.

Before Yuuya could think of an action however, the girl turned and looked right at Yuuya himself. He froze up. _"Oh, this is the bastard son? He's so pretty!"_ Yuuya felt his gut _roil_ at that word, at hearing it again, at hearing it so casually. Like she knew somehow. She walked over to him, feet touching the glass and not getting pricked. His head started to spin. _"Is this person valuable to you, Mr. Kuga?"_

"In..." His father coughed. "In a way… a good, loyal investment would be."

" _Hm… You're so bad at affection towards other people, so I can't take you seriously at-all!"_

Yuuya tried to scoot away from the approaching figure even as Black screeched and howled and struck at the glass in madness. It was all pointless. Cool fingers, smooth as the flesh of his baby brother after he'd been cleaned at birth, but these eyes were much more than those had been. Much emptier, much more exhausted. They touched his chin with care, or something like it. _"I don't think he loves you at all, little thing,"_ she said.

Yuuya opened his mouth and closed it. He knew that already.

The little girl giggled through her locks of purple hair. _"That's too bad. Mr. Kuga, you should care about your family at least. You've only got one more heir. I don't think that wife of yours is good for much else. You've said it yourself. If I get rid of this one, you might be in trouble. You're not the best of men."_

There was another groan, heavy as rocks. "What..." His father was sitting up. "What do you want, girl?"

" _You killed two babies,_ " she said. Her voice changed at those words, mixing hisses and words until they were all barely intelligible. _"You killed two babies and ruined a lady and_ used me _. I want you to lose what we have."_

"Losing..." Kenzo rolled the debris and glass aside and perhaps it was the shock or the fear, but he swore the cuts and bruises were fading away while he looked. "Losing that would be a loss of a good investment, but I have another. He would thirst for this."

" _You would let go of a son you had kept close for so long."_

The man smiled and Yuuya shifted back. He never smiled. His father was not someone who smiled until he had won the whole game and nothing less. "Why not?"

He wasn't surprised at the answer. Yuuya wasn't surprised at the answer at all.

That didn't make it hurt any less.

 _I've done everything you've ever asked, every single thing and I am still disposable. Am I still no good? Are you going to leave me there too? Are you going to walk away too?_

The floor lurched. The room turned like the hands of a clock.

The girl hummed in thought. _"That so? Guess I'll have to see if you're all talk or not."_ She regarded Yuuya thoughtfully. _"Remember that he said that, okay? Remember. This is what this world is filled with. Remember this world, remember all of them."_

He got the distinct feeling of being shoved, thought he saw his father's eyes go wide in the blurring of his vision, but then he was lost. Lost to a stream of voices and feelings (some were even his) and a great pain in all of his abdomen and some in his eyes.

His heart thumped the loudest, louder than Black's screams and that distant, haunting laughter. So loud.

But his father's disdain, like always, cut through them all.


	8. Chapter 8

_Some of the same warnings as last time, as well as a singular F-bomb._

* * *

 **Chapter Eight – Wonderland Cycles**

Like floating up from a dive in the pool, Yuuya slowly became aware of the world around him. The smell was both musty and soft, like condensation by a window. He was laying on something soft, presumably a futon. There was a dull roar of working electronics somewhere to his right. And someone was humming to themselves. He made himself turn his head and open his eyes.

For a moment, he saw the girl, the girl who broke the glass and sent a pain soaring through his nerves. He saw it and then the illusion broke with the sound of her voice. He coughed.

She turned her head and the vague illusion shattered entirely. Yuuya choked on his own spit for a moment and hissed out to breathe, curling up on himself as _other things_ swam into view. Each breath came out in a choked moan and gasp of pain until something cold and scaly nosed at his face. He swiped at it with his hands and groaned once more. Hot air plunged out at his face and he sputtered, forcing his eyes open. He was met with big dark green eyes filled with worry.

"Yuuya," it said, brawny shoulders slumping over with relief..

The images faded away at that hoarse, worried voice, as he took in the small black dinosaur rather comically half-splayed across this one side of the bed. He reached out to touch the black snout. He stroked the scales, earning a pleased noise in return, steady little grumbling noises of approval. Yuuya almost laughed, but the world slowly came back into focus and he looked about.

"Where am I?" He remembered being in the office, definitely, and it exploding, but-

 _Don't think of him, he'll never help you and you know it, give up on him, it's the wiser decision and you know it._

"You're in the Digital World."

His head snapped up and he realized one of the other occupants of the room had been staring at him this whole time, her purple eyes – which had no pupils was that even physically possible? - finally looking away. "It seems you have managed to escape too much physical injury from when you fell here. It is not uncommon for people to be knocked unconscious on their way down." She turned her attention to the white form of what appeared to be a Tailmon, which was purring loud enough that Yuuya could almost feel it from where he lay. "Your mental damage was much more severe, however, at least according to your partner there."

"I see..." He didn't _want to_ remember all of how he had gotten there, but he had the feeling he would all of the same. "I think he's supposed to be much larger than this." In fact, he _knew_ he was supposed to be, he had made him like that.

"He uses your energy to maintain his form." The young woman gave the Tailmon a gentle nudge and they scampered away with a huff. "As you recover, he'll do the same."

Yuuya nodded and looked up to see a patchwork ceiling, covered in bandages and cracks made better with silver duct tape. "This place is real." He breathed the words, a little thoughtlessly, his naturally narrow eyes starting to widen.

" _Don't worry darling, mama's going to be fine. She's going home, where she belongs. Come along now, we'll be safe there."_

"In a metaphysical sense, we have no idea," the woman replied, pulling a purple laptop from seemingly nowhere and thankfully pulling him from his darkening thoughts. "But we're alive here, so I have to assume so, Kuga Yuuya."

Like he had been doused with freezing water, Yuuya looked back. Summoning up what little of the mask he possessed, and even he could tell it wasn't much, he managed to smirk. "And just who are you to know who _I_ am?" It wasn't like he was a secret or anything, but you couldn't get away with parading about an illegitimate son and have it go over well.

The woman smiled. It softened the sharp lines of her strangely empty face. "My name is Mikagura Mirei and I am the one who has been hacking your system, I'm afraid. Or, what was your system. If you're here, something must have happened."

Yuuya sighed and his shoulders sagged. "I believe I have just been disowned," he said. The words weren't as heavy as the lump in his throat, but they hurt all the same. Everything he had ever done, how hard he had worked to keep his fragile place in this world from being torn and discarded for things that had _nothing to do with him_ and yet-

" _Fuck_ him," he mumbled before he could stop himself. Black hissed and nipped at his fingers.

He didn't really notice the tears until Mirei's dark fingers were touching beneath his eyes. They were there for a second and then gone. Her face was still close to his, like he needed immediate perusal.

"Little miss, you're supposed to offer people a _tissue_ or two when they're in a state like that."

Mirei moved away, head tilted quizzically. "I forgot, grandfather," she replied, nodding to the short digimon.

He chuckled through his massive amount of white hair. "As you tend to do. Thankfully, I have manners enough for the both of us." He placed the box by Yuuya's knee, who was desperately trying to control the embarrassment in his face.

"Does not," muttered the Tailmon as she padded back to Mirei.

Yuuya heard himself laugh, but it didn't quite register. He made himself pet Black's snout and struggled to put himself back together.

Mirei eventually interrupted his thoughts. "Kuga Kenzo has done some awful things," she said, and her laptop was open now. "I'd like to stop him from doing more. Will you help me?"

Normally, Yuuya would ask to think about it. He would run variables and plans over in his head. He would leave and get away from this strange, unusual woman and house. Today he was not normal and he might never be again.

"What do I need to do?" he said instead.

He thought Black looked pleased.

* * *

At the sound of the lunch bell, Taiga took a firm grip to Niko's ear and yanked him from his chair. He protested the whole way, of course, but Taiga expected that. He didn't let go until they were going up the roof to the stairs and it was too late for Niko not to escape without tripping over himself, earning a sullen glare in response.

"Dude, manhandling. Keep telling you that-"

"Well, it ain't ever gonna stick, so get over it." Taiga ignored his friend's irritated noise of response. The only way to get Niko to be honest with you was to drag him into a place where he had no god damn choice and he knew it. And that place was going to be with Rina because Rina was persuasive like that. Not even physically persuasive, just plain old 'got through arguments on pure logic' persuasive. "We're gonna talk about this and we're gonna talk to Rina and then we're gonna eat and talk tournament stuff like normal kids."

"You're one to talk about normal," Niko grumbled. "Mister obsessively reorganizes his refrigerator."

"At least I _clean mine._ "

Niko made to retort but he paused just outside the roof door as they both heard Rina's voice, clear as day.

"When were you going to tell me you met the heir to GIGO at the supermarket?" she shouted, mirth mixed with some weird sort of… fear? "You meet the weirdest guys, Aki."

"Rina, I didn't even know who he was."

Taiga's eyes narrowed at the familiar voice and Niko _had to_ resist groaning. His best friend could hold a serious grudge. Granted Akiho had done something illegal, but she had never repeated it at least and had been kinda civil. Kind of. What were they even talking about?

"Well we know now," Rina's voice quieted. "So was he kidnapped? Killed? You have him at our apartment for us to have our-"

"Finish that sentence and I swear you will be lucky to find that Java manual I bought you last year."

"You _wouldn't."_ Rina could somehow vocally pout. "You love me, you wouldn't dare."

"Sure I would. But seriously. He's like: missing." There was a brief pause to exhale. "They're saying a monster did it, terrorists did it. My money, all 10000 yen of it, is on the monster."

"Same." Rina sobered entirely and Taiga and Niko looked at each other. _That_ was not their Rina. "GIGO gets hacked by a Digimon one week all across the planet, the CEO and his apparently illegal son get attacked the next. Sounds kind of familiar."

"Just a little. We've got no proof that it'll go the same way here that it did there though, so for now we should focus on destroying that tournament."

"Long as one of us wins, we'll be home free, right? Theoretically speaking." There was a pause as Rina unwrapped something from plastic. "I mean Digimon hacking means Digital World involvement and a grand prize like that wouldn't be money. Counterfeit bills are way too traceable by ordinary means. And kids wouldn't get the big deal anyway. Nah, it's gotta be a big adventure."

"Also we can't rule out multiple people going, so we don't necessarily have to win. Adventures need teams."

"But you're still going to slaughter it." Rina swallowed a bit of whatever it was.

"My duty as the queen. For god and country, I fight."

They laughed and Taiga felt a lot less hungry hearing that sound.

"Anyway." Akiho sighed. "Your boys are on the way, I'll let you get to dealing with their shenanigans."

Rina huffed. "You make that sound way more sexual than it actually is."

"I will call you on that so hard later, I promise."

"Challenge accepted!"

Taiga pushed forward at that point to see Rina closing her phone. For a moment he saw Rina's expressionless face, just long enough for him to know it was there before her characteristic smile took its place.

"Where have you guys been?" she shouted. "I've got tempura."

"It's hard to drag Niko by his ear," Taiga replied, heart thumping in his chest. "He's got too many rocks in him."

Niko clocked him on the side of the head as he passed. He sat down and brushed Rina's shoulder with his own, earning a tinier smile. Taiga sat beside him and opened his bento box for Rina to fill it with more goodies, as she always did.

It was better to pretend that they hadn't heard any of that. Not now. Not until the tournament was over. Some of it was hard to interpret as it was. If they just didn't know anything, their relationship could stay the same.

Taiga glanced at Niko once, who was trying to avoid Rina feeding him a piece of shrimp, and knew that he was thinking the exact same thing.


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter Nine: Growth Spurt**

"Get up." Niko nudged at his desk. "C'mon man, face up to it."

Taiga groaned. "My brain hurts. You go look."

"And brave that crowd by myself? Like hell that's happening. Come on." Niko shoved the desk, but that only caused Taiga to cling to it tighter like a very young and very dumb barnacle. Well, he wasn't that dumb, he had passed so far. IT was just that competitive streak in him, that's all. "Seriously, I do not want to stand there by myself and look at Rina's stupidly high scores on my own. Humor me. I'll get you a burger."

Taiga peeked an eye open. "… And fries."

Niko sighed. "Yeah, yeah, duh." You couldn't face impending grades without the promise of a burger and fries. It was a tradition by now.

Taiga groaned and pulled himself to his feet, gray hair drooping over his goggles. "Fine, let's get it over with." He tried to ignore Fergus' murmured admonishments of his self-deprecation, because what did he have to worry about? You didn't have to go to school in a V-Pet! Well, you kind of did but training didn't exactly count.

" _You will be fine, child."_

Taiga swallowed and nodded, making sure Niko couldn't see.

Though, he had to admit, it was nice to hear things like that from someone who wasn't his own age.

He trailed after Niko, not even bothering to crane his neck. He'd let the walking beanpole get the information or at least the predetermined idea. The crowd was already buzzing there, whispering and groaning to each other. In the sea of black and brown and dull as storm clouds school uniforms, Rina's bright green is almost blinding. She didn't turn around, staring up towards the left of the ranking board. Right where her name would be..

Taiga didn't even have to look to see Shinomiya Rina in carefully typed kanji next to the number one. The whispers grew like an angry hive of bees. Rina stepped to the side to let others pass, already turning to look for them. Someone's foot stuck out, something Taiga could only notice because of how Rina dodged it. She jumped over it, and the student gaped, like that was something surprising and new. Well, it was weird but Rina did weird things, like make it to the top spot every time like it was a game, or challenge random people to digimon fights when they were alone in the back of a classroom, or not know what an arcade was.

Niko's teeth audibly ground at the sight of her jump, eyes narrowing into slits behind his glasses. Taiga grabbed his arm as carefully as he could without making a big scene.

"This is probably a bad time for you to go guard dog," he whispered. Niko almost glared at him, but Taiga jerked his head forward.

"They'd deserve it," Niko said, voice mutinous.

" _That would be ill-advised, as you can't punch people very well, master."_

Fergus laughed, a choked sound of amusement. _"That is a good point, Sashenka."_

" _I try."_

Honestly, that was the thought Taiga had. Niko couldn't fight anything. He couldn't even fight the cats that stalked his apartment. Taiga figured he himself was the only one who outranked him in terms of being a complete weenie.

"She's fine," he tried instead. "It's Rina. She ignores it. She cares about what _we_ think. That's what matters right? She's more worried about our grades and our lives, and our everything and-"

"And it drives me up a god damn wall," Niko muttered. He forced out a heavy exhale of breath. "You're right, as usual." He rubbed his arm, where Taiga's grip had gotten surprisingly bruising. Taiga immediately jumped away as if burnt, noting how _red_ his best friend's arm had gotten. "Geez bro." Niko cracked a smirk. "I still need that."

"S-Sorry." Taiga stared at his own hand like it would give him the answers he was looking for. Then he shook his head. "Can you see?"

Niko made a face. "Yeah, yeah, hold on…" He leaned up a bit and then stared, eyes sliding right, then left. "Found you. You're like: five below me. We're on the upper levels." He grinned, a full-blown smile. "Nice one, man."

Taiga just blinked, open-mouthed. "I… I did what no-" He was cut off by the delighted tackle hug that Rina shoved them both into, one under each arm.

"Nice!" she shouted, right in their ears. "What's your secret, Taiga? You jumped up, way up!"

"I, uh-" He had none. Maybe he had studied harder, maybe he had worked a bit more than usual. But he couldn't think of anything.

What Taiga could notice, however, was how quiet Fergus had become. He could hear V.V. and Sashenka chattering quietly, but Fergus hadn't let out a peep. After school he would have to ask.

He didn't. Instead, Taiga went home with his friends and talked about the tournament that weekend, pretending Rina's smile didn't seem a bit more brittle than usual and that that knock from Rina's roommate did not bother him or Niko at all, especially when she left with a cheerful finger wave, and none of her customary affection.

They were changing. They were all changing.

Taiga didn't like it much. Not like this.

…

The day of the tournament had arrived.

Kuga Yuuya, exploring the real coliseum his former company had designed, did not even notice until the hours had counted down and the notification had arrived on his phone. Said notification almost woke him up from a doze in the slowly churning elevator.

No humans could see him, supposedly. The Digimon reacted, but they mostly reacted to the bouncing, quick form of Black. He had never remembered his partner to be so… excitable. Not that he didn't like it. One of them had to be the emotive one.

"You are near me," the dinosaur would say whenever he asked. "It is enough. I can repent."

Simple sentences, soft words, gravel in the throat. Gravel that was all his fault, all due to his own fear. Due to his own childish warped denial and things he could not -would not- think about. They made him think of his father directly, and Yuuya couldn't-

" _Why not?"_

Think of that or he would be sick and useless and he couldn't do that. Not now. Not now that he was finally doing things he never got to: like get legitimately dirty.

Black sneezed loud enough to interrupt his thoughts. Yuuya pulled out a handkerchief from his pocket and wiped him off.

"Cobwebs," the BlackAgumon grunted. Yuuya agreed, sneezing himself. "Old place."

"Very," Yuuya agreed again, holding out his phone like a flashlight. The elevator door closed and wheeled shut. The sound was too loud, much too loud in this cobwebbed area that seems to echo every time his still well-made shoes touch the floor. "Do you remember this room from the blueprints, Black?" Because he certainly didn't, and he had been required to draw them from memory at least twice.

"Don't." Black sniffed, "Shouldn't. Too old. Wet. Musty. _Dead."_

"Dead?" Yuuya shifted back towards the elevator. He should probably head back, speak to Mirei, let her know the room was there. She might not know. But she had told him to look for something, something strange.

" _It might call out to you, I am not certain,"_ she had said. _"Still, it is worth looking into before you leave File CITY for a while."_

Though what he was leaving for, he had no idea. Mikagura Mirei was an incredibly vague person, and it was making him regret, just a tad. But it was too late now, and for some reason, even thinking of stopping made his heart throb with indignation.

So he kept walking, ignoring the echo that made his ears ring. Then Black let out a snuffle and raced ahead of him and his flashlight. He sniffed at something the light was not able to quite illuminate and then looked over at Yuuya himself.

"This." His single word was more insistent than a peck on the arm. "This, Yuuya. Here it is."

Yuuya, however, did not move. "Any idea what it is?"

"No."

Yuuya almost laughed. Surely, his paranoid partner wouldn't be trying to get him hurt. So he stepped closer and almost tripped the entire way up the steps. He threw out his hand to catch himself, V-Pet clattering to the ground.

The second his hand touched whatever it was Black had been sniffing, the world around them lit up with light. A tingling sensation raced up his back and spine and spread out and out. He hit his knees for the three seconds it took for him to think about it. Then he started to float and the world spread out around them, full of vivid song.

Then, because this was his life, the tingling grew to pins and needles and he groaned. Down here, no one could save him.

He wasn't going to die, don't be melodramatic. He was just going to have to save himself from… whatever thhis was.

…

Akiho started awake. It was not a good feeling. She hated that sort of wake up call. Beside her, Rina slept on, curled up in a good half of the sheets. She mumbled and Akiho made herself relax, made her heart slow. It thumped loudly in her ears for a moment.

For a moment, she had thought…

 _A dragon's hiss, a pleasant smile, missing face all over any screen…_

She almost wanted to look to the window. If this was an anime, he'd be right there, admitting he had run away from responsibility or something equally unrealistic and dumb but meant to be a heart-pounding indication of love.

Akiho almost laughed out loud. Then she rolled out of bed, landing on her good leg with barely a wince.

That wasn't how love worked. This, her life, was.

Still, she couldn't shake that feeling in her heart.


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter Ten – Everyone Has a Purpose**

At the sight of that too large crowd, Taiga could easily remember why he didn't tend to play competitive. There were other reasons, but tournaments meant people, and people meant bruised egos that weren't just jerks who tried (and usually failed) to hack the system. Fun matches in the arcades were one thing, but this was a real tournament and any and every tamer in Japan with even the tiniest Baby was likely here to get a chance at the mysterious prize. Taiga could respect smart marketing, even understand it. That didn't mean he liked it.

But well, he was meters away from the arcade, and Niko was slouched by his own bicycle. He wasn't even trying to look cool either. He just looked half-dead, which wasn't much better. Taiga caught up to him, barely failing not wheeling himself into the electric pole. He winces at the skidding noise. "Hey."

Niko waved two fingers. He looked more pale than usual. "We're screwed," he said.

Taiga quirked an eyebrow. "Did it get canceled?"

"Worse." Niko fiddled with his V-Pet. "Nyanko Tamer's in there."

Taiga winced and heard the quiet noise of interest that Fergus made seemingly every time that username popped up in conversation or on screen in casual play. The number one Tamer all over the world who went by this cutesy name and yet every time he fought them, he lost spectacularly. He wasn't even sure how.

Fighting Fergus had always been the equivalent, as far as Niko had told him, of fighting a wall with hands. That was on a good day. On days where Niko had tried and failed to pick a fight it was like running in quicksand. He didn't block attacks; he negated them. He denied their worth and crashed the opponents to a ground in heaps. Even holding back didn't change that fact.

The only exception had ever been Nyanko Tamer, the strange user who chirped at them about inane conversation while throwing a Shakamon, effectively a god, around like a tennis ball and a racket decided to hook up. And the only person who had a remote success at beating them was… currently standing at the back of the crowd, orange sherbet cone in hand. Of course, the fact that Rina's said sherbet was halfway down her wrist at this point went unnoticed by said girl.

"What, was it announced or something?" Taiga considered edging towards the crowd, though he really didn't want to. It was a problem with online handles (hence why people hardly ever saw his, it was kind of embarrassing), once you got famous, you only were known by that handle from that moment until the end of time. "Did people interrogate them or what?"

"According to Rina, they went in during setup to talk to the staff." Taiga tried not to roll his eyes, and Niko snorted. "Give me that much power and prestige and use it to bully the staff of an internet company, yeah I know. Probably to keep out hackers or something."

Taiga really wanted to ask how Rina even knew who Nyanko Tamer was but seeing as she was washing ice cream off of her hand, well, he could wait.

Then the doors opened and the mass of people turned into a flood as they rushed the doors. Taiga could only stare. Either he just wasn't feeling the hype, or…

HE caught a mess of jet black hair in the back of the crowd, a slouching figure with his hands in his pockets. A pure black old, V-Pet Toy swung at his wrist on a simple keychain holder. It danced in the sun and there was a growling voice, faint from the distance.

" _C'mon, Kuro, you know this ain't gonna work."_ Pleading, anxious, unhappy. _"Ye cain't just wish yer brother back into yer life."_

"Shut it." Was Kurosugi's voice shaking? It had to be shaking. He kept walking and Taiga couldn't help but strain his ears to hear. "Gonna be fine. We practiced. Real practice. We'll crush that bozo girl and everyone else. We'll crush him too. He'll be singing a different tune when I get my hands on him."

" _You say that every time, ya lump."_

"Well if you could fight worth a lick, we wouldn't be here."

" _It's not my fault Yuuya's gone, pipsqueak."_

Whatever Kurosugi said next was lost in the crowd. Taiga looked at Niko, who was squinting at his disappearing figure like hewa s ready to crash it into the nearest sharp metal object. Not that Taiga disagreed but…

" _Be careful, child."_

Fergus' voice helped his shoulders slump with ease and he nudged Niko with an arm. "C'mon," he said. "Let's get in there and register before they decide we're not worthy."

"Or before Rina gets a hold of us." Niko relented when he lost sight of Kurosugi. Taiga swallowed the lump in his throat. They could always get a hold of him later, remind him very discreetly not to be a cheating bastard, like he had before.

There had to be better things to do than delete Digimon belonging to seven year olds.

Inside was a slight less of a mess. Rina was wiggling in place in line, waving one hand and her entire body moving with her enthusiasm. Niko's shoulders eased up entirely and Taiga nudged him again.

"You totally can't fight her," he told his friend.

Niko scowled. "Neither can you."

Taiga's face burned up. "Shut up."

They were about two-point-four seconds away from a regularly scheduled brotherly brawl when Rina holler at probably the first decibel close to the top of her lungs "Would the dream team quit serenading and get over here before the tournament ends?"

Both boys sputtered in indignation, faces turning nearly the exact shade of a ripe tomato.

"Truce," Niko managed once he got some air back.

Taiga nodded, unable to speak without coughing.

* * *

There wasn't much fanfare to the start of the tournament. There couldn't be. You could never keep a batch of small children interested for more than a few minutes on any one thing in particular, so they strted it off with some shiny lights and colorful explosions and then everyone in the first group had their opponents shot to their app.

Taiga groaned. "Why can't I go now?" It was better to get it over with, deal with the backlash like ripping off a band aid then ignore the long-term consequences. It had worked out well for his life so far.

Niko spun his watch on his finger. "Bad luck dude." He smirked, brushing down his already slicked back hair (because the boy was obsessed with his dad's hair gel, gone or not) "I'll just have to win for the both of us."

"Don't you go cocky on me." Taiga pretended to glare. "We'll knock you right out son enough."

Niko scoffed mockingly. "Yeah, right." He left for his first set of matches. Taiga slumped to the chair, overly conscious of the way Rina was gleefully devouring two taiyaki and a takoyaki box.

"Did you skip breakfast?" he couldn't help but ask, both impressed and disgusted by how fast that food was disappearing. He had lost the ability to devour anything in front of his face now, but he was pretty sure that was her standard manners, or lack there of. Damn Niko's dad for giving him manners, him and-

Nah, best not to think about that.

Rina stopped chewing to give him a rude finger. "Nope. Just need my energy. Gonna fight a lot today. Fight hard. Gotta support V.V.!"

"Gotta kill your system with junk food," V.V. deadpanned.

She didn't even glance up. "You should get some too before everyone drains the food court.

Taiga glanced at his pockets and to her small, but thick food pile. "Uh… I don't have enough money to have half of the junk you-ow!" She chucked her change purse at him. Her heavy, froggy, jingling change purse. Ow. "Uh."

"Make it lighter," she ordered, snapping the takoyaki stick with her teeth. "And buy Aki a pizza and a fizz shake. Doesn't matter what kind, she isn't picky."

Taiga almost complained, but Rina was already face-first into a soda. Taiga sweatdropped but decided to do as he was told. It was just easier.

He came back and his app made a notification. Taiga peered to look at it. A small kid, no more than eight. Taiga's lip curled.

Great. Best first opponent.

Rina patted his back and he swallowed a little food quickly enough and went to the small arena, one of now apparently one hundred or so. They were lucky that the building was twice the size of a regular school gymnasium. He crossed to log in. Fergus was, as always, quiet. He didn't like these places, especially on weekend afternoons. It was going to get hot in stuffy in like, two hours, just watch.

"Hi, Nii-san!" chirped his opponent, a little girl, of course. Because the best guys always beat up little girls. "Let's do our best, okay?"

"Yeah, sure..." Taiga made himself look up and then he paled.

"… Mi? What are you doing here?"

The girl spun in place. _"Making sure you showed up, of course! Sometimes you don't and then it just gets bad."_

Taiga was hit with the sudden urge to give this little kid a noogie. "What? Niko loses? Fights? Food everywhere?"

Mi smiled. _"Oh no, better than that. Niko almost gets crushed by a piece of the ceiling. Good thing you're here to pay attention."_


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter Eleven – Words Are Unbalancing**

There was really only one decent response to a statement that blatantly excited about pain.

"What the heck is wrong with you?"

Mi stared at him, a bit taken aback at the angry flush on Taiga's face and the way his whole body had started to shake. Because now Taiga could _see it. One of the beams always tended to creak. Sometimes the lights flickered. It'd be so easy if it fell, to crash down towards a tall head and-_

" _Don't make a sound like that,"_ Mi said with fond exasperation, smiling like a parent scolding their errant child. _"We're in public. And I said_ almost _, didn't I?"_

Taiga felt himself still shaking as the almost registered, as the smoothly heartless smile the little girl had on her face. It was true. She had said almost, and she hadn't lied to him. She had skirted around the truth in the vaguest way possible, but never lied. "But, you- what does me being here have to do with anything?"

Mi danced on one foot, plugging in her (black he noted, black and blue for some reason that was important) V-Pet into the machine. _"I dunno. It just does."_ She shrugged. _"Although, if you're here, it means that person is off doing something else."_ Taiga opened his mouth and she shook her head. _"No, no I can't just tell you. You know already. And if I tell you they'll know I'm here and that person is probably_ super pissed _at me. I trashed their stuff. But!"_ She clapped her hands. _"Enough about that. Let's play!"_

Taiga just stared for a moment, aghast. This was why he didn't like Akiho. These two said things like this, took nothing seriously. And he was a dork in a sweater. He couldn't change that. "Do you just say things like that to get under people's skin?"

Mi paused, standing upright. And she looked at him, large violet eyes turning a blue that would be painted into his eyelids for years to come. Then they turned purple again and she shrugged. _"You can think that if you want. Might be better if you do."_

Taiga wanted to ask more, needed to ask, needed to know how Niko lived and why , why she even knew this to begin with, but the battles were getting underway all around them. "Enragement child," he finally grumbled, cheeks pink, for lack of anything better to counter that with because he sure as hell didn't want to like her for that or pity her or anything. That was just like, not allowed at all.

Mi laughed but this one sounded genuine, more puzzled. _"Enragement child? Is that the best you can do?"_

Taiga's eye twitched and he plugged Fergus in, breathing harder than he should.

Seconds passed and the holographic coliseum formed over the previously blank board. Fergus' familiar form, tall and splendid gold, appeared first, the orbs surrounding his dark body hovering innocuously like a sash. Beneath his crossed legs floated a miniature sun, which toiled and spat out sparks.

On the other side was a gray, washed out dragon man, gray energy rolling off of every inch of its body. Its eyes were like silver stars. Another Ultimate. Something rare and prized for any Tamer. They were supposed to be rare. Sure, you could normally evolve your partner to Ultimate sometimes, but it was rare for someone to keep it there. That was what made Fergus so special, as far as he could tell.

"Oh you poor child," whispered Fergus. Taiga couldn't see his face through the wave of hair but Taiga could hear the tremble in his partner's voice. "What did that child do to you?"

The monster didn't answer. Instead, the dragon man roared and the fire burst out, hitting air.

The buzzer sounded and Fergus jumped to the side, avoiding the fist that had nearly would have crushed the face of a lesser Digimon.

But Fergus was a Shakamon. He would not lose to such impudent violence. He closed his eyes and started to hum, even as a flaming sword rushed his face. It slowed and stopped, struggling in mid-air to even try and connect a blow.

Taiga almost smiled. "Good job, Fergus!"

" _Yeah,"_ Mi chirped. _"Good job doing all the work."_

Taiga's near smile became a scowl in an instant. All right, that was it, he was going to crush Mi for that one.

* * *

It took everything Niko had to not flop on his girlfriend the second he got a break, mostly because of the mess of food on the table. Rina shoved some at him and kept eating. He wrinkled his nose before he could stop himself.

"You're gonna make yourself sick eating like that," he said with a grimace.

Rina swallowed a piece of cinnamon roll and cackled. "Haven't so far." She wiped her mouth on her sleeve and Niko shoved a napkin in her face. She kissed his hand instead.

"Rina!"

She giggled and took the napkin. Her V-Pet beeped in what Niko would gather was indignation.

Rina sat back and patted her stomach. "That should hold us for a bit," she said with a laugh. She looked at him with a bright grin. "You won right?"

Niko tried very hard not to puff out his chest. "Duh. They were pretty easy too."

Rina beamed at him. "Good!" She poked at her V-Pet with a smile. "I'm glad. We'll get to face each other then."

"Probably." He smiled at her, a real smile, not the worn out expression from the past few days. "I'll beat you this time."

Rina laughed a bit too loud. "Not a chance!" She leaned on him. "I'll use all my feminine charms on you."

Niko blushed and cursed himself for it. "Don't you dare," he said, glowering at her. "That's cheating and you know it. And we're in public."

"Funny how that's the last thing you think of." She kissed him right on the cheek and his pink face turned tomato red. He gave her a light shove.

"Don't do that." She pouted, but her lips quirked into a smile. After a few moments, Niko smiled back. It was good, he couldn't help but think, to see her smiling at him this time, rather than the past few days where she just brushed around them or kept this weird distance. Rina was always close by after all. She wasn't going to go anywhere.

 _She won't just up and leave like everyone else._

Hell, even Taiga did that sometimes. He didn't mean to but that didn't make it not sting.

Niko broke out of his thoughts at Rina leaning on him. For a moment, all he could think of was a bunch of kids and teenagers looking over at them, judging. Sneering.

 _Don't let your kids around that one. His hair's_ natural _._

The least those people could have done was not be obvious about their disdain or whatever.

Niko let out a quiet sigh and gave in, wrapping one arm around her shoulders. She was breathing slowly, peaceful against him.

Something creaked overhead. He didn't hear it over the cacophony of laser noises.

"… I miss him," he finally said. It was said through a lump in his throat but he said it and Rina, being herself, thankfully didn't ask who.

"Are you okay?" she asked instead, red eyes looking up at him, somewhat through him. Niko looked away. It was so hard to _lie_ to her. It was impossible to be honest. Even before they had started dating, when it had just been three kids under a giant kotatsu, she could wrangle him to say what he was thinking just by staring. It was so _annoying_ sometimes.

"Not really," Niko admitted. "I mean, he's still gone. I don't want to go into his study. Who knows what's in there, you know? But I..."

Rina's lips twitched, still staring at him. "Niko, I… I have a theory."

"Yeah?" Oh this ought to be good. The sad thing was that Rina's theories tended to go flying over people's heads in record time.

Unfortunately, he didn't get to hear it because someone screamed very loudly. He looked up as something solid and black fell towards his face.


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter Twelve – Things All Fall Apart**

"Oh dear."

That was really about the reaction Rue expected from Mirei. Her partner was never much of 'scream in horror and swear' kind of woman. More of 'oh this could be a problem, let's deal with it.' sort, even if her methods had once involved violence and nosy, pushy interference. It was understandable.

"Any reason for the sudden breakage on that side?" Mirei asked the black cat, who waved her tail and went back to the grainy monitor nearby. Her sister Ivy slept in their partner's lap, because god knew what she would do if she was awake right now.

Reluctantly, Rue removed her gloves and set to typing on the tiny keys. She clicked with care, activating one of the security cameras with a virus' ease and swiveling it about from the ceiling. There was nothing but black at first, nothing but the black and the lights of the room. Then the metal bar distinguished itself and she saw a mop of white (blond).

"The two of them are alive," she reported and Mirei makes a note of that on her own computer. Considering that they had somehow survived the falling of an entire section of lighting. Currently, it would be very hard to play, but then the bastards are kind enough to put the full lighting back in. The game must go on.

Or maybe Mirei did it. She probably did do it.

"That Yuuya kid is still gone," she said to fill the silence.

Her partner let out a weary hum. "Do you want to go looking for him?"

Rue made a face. "I don't trust Ivy with you."

"You really should."

She really shouldn't. Ivy was a good watch cat but nothing else. It did their partner no good to stay in silence, no matter how much she seemed to prefer it. Still. She needed… experience. Yes that was a good word. "When Ivy wakes up."

"Very well."

Rue glanced at her partner, hoping for a smile. It was no good. Mirei hadn't smiled in hours, not one that mattered.

She tried very hard not to be disappointed and went back to work instead.

...

Niko expected pain, even the briefest flicker of it before his head splattered open like an egg – man that was morbid, thanks for the active imagination _Taiga –_ so when it didn't happen, his eyes opened relatively quickly. Looking up, the black object was centimeters above his head, shuddering in place. His eyes were drawn to the right, where Rina, in the span of seconds, mind you, was standing up, holding the beam up with a determined fist. For a moment, all he could do was just stare at the sight

"Niko?" she said. "Not to uh, rush you but… can ya move please?" She moved her right foot over to stand better on the chair, which wobbled and cracked at the weight. "This is a bad angle..."

Niko jumped and nodded, scrambling away from the table, his brain too blank to form words. The second all of his lanky body was out of the way, Rina hopped off the chair and to the side, leaving the beam to crash to the floor and crush chair, table, and food in one blow that splatters everything everywhere in a way that might have been-

Niko doubled over, overcome with the urge to throw up. Someone shoved a trashcan close enough and he did so into it, feeling disgusted with himself as the fear took hold.

 _Holy shit I almost died. If it wasn't for Rina, I-_

He came up for air and to shout his concern only for Rina to shove a wet napkin in his face and rub it with the grace of a drunken tyrannosaurus rex.

He dropped it within twelve seconds to the trash can and tackled her. "What the hell were you thinking?" he finally managed to say.

"You're welcome," she chirped, hugging him back. Like it meant nothing. Like she hadn't just randomly held up a heavy metal object and saved his god damn life.

Niko opened his mouth to ask how, but then jumped at the scraping sound of the trash bin being moved away. Akiho stood there, concern written in her face. She also held a cup of water.

"For your mouth," she supplied, pink eyes looking a little red. Maybe it was a trick of the now ruined lighting. Niko drank, slowly hearing the thump of his heart go quiet in his ears. She smiled a bit. "I'm glad you're okay."

"How am I okay?" he croaked. Rina was still hugging him, Niko realized in the back of his mind. She was shaking a little herself. The shaking was mostly in her legs.

"Adrenaline?" Akiho offered in that soft voice. But she wasn't looking at him at all. She was looking at Rina and Niko couldn't help but stare at her expression, at the steady, fearful tinge curving her mouth the way it was. Still, she gripped Niko's arm with incredible strength and guided them over.

Slowly, as they sat there, the world came back into focus. People were all staring, but some were playing still. Taiga, from what he could see of him at the other side of the building, was looking between battle and their small group, fingers itching to pull out his V-Pet and run to them. And yet his eyes kept getting drawn back to their opponent, a tiny kid who wasn't even taller than the coliseum machine. Niko couldn't tell from the distance but it seemed like it was out of fear.

Then his V-Pet beeped with a notification. A notification? Now? Even as arcade staff swarmed him and the fallen metal (and the rest wasn't falling, how was the rest not collapsing? Niko would figure later that it would take more than a single lighting construct falling to collapse an entire building, theoretically, but he was panicking right now), and people were shepherded back to their games like there was nothing wrong, no problems what so ever.

The reasoning came back to him fairly quickly: he was still in a tournament. For whatever reason they were still in a tournament for some unusual, unnamed prize that even the announcers themselves had been baffled by.

"You can bow out, if you want to."

Akiho's soft, somehow gentle voice pulled Niko away from staring at his watch screen. He forced himself to read it and see the words 'Nyanko Tamer' in bright white against his black screen. Akiho held up her phone, where his own username sat, properly worded and all.

"You can bow out," she repeated gently. Her pink eyes held nothing but sympathy and for some reason that scared him more than her easy break into Taiga's apartment. "You just almost died."

Rina let go of him to watch, and she was concerned. Again with all these weird concerned faces.

Perhaps it was just the shock, but Niko found himself saying, "No, I can fight."

After all what could be worse than nearly dying under some headlights?

…

When the darkened ShineGreymon finally stopped moving, Taiga felt his breath catch in his throat. He was, for some reason, panting. He hadn't even done anything except say a few orders! Fergus had done it all himself. Yet his arms felt like lead. So id a spot on the back of his neck, two spots in the very obvious shape of eyes.

Mi, from the other side, wasn't looking the least bit downtrodden. She just recalled the Digimon with a pout on her chubby face that didn't seem even the slightest bit real. She unplugs her V-Pet and beams at him.

" _Not bad,"_ she chirped. _"Too bad Fergus did all the work. You just had to watch. Easy job."_

Fergus made a sound of disapproval. _"No one likes a sore loser, child."_

"No one likes a cheap win either."

That line she spoke, everyone heard, and a fair few people looked. They looked towards her and the new sad look on her face, frown as deep as the water under Rainbow Bridge. Then they looked at Taiga, who was drooping in his spot.

As they kept staring, Taiga made himself look away, towards Mi, maybe to yell at her, maybe to prove her wrong. But the little girl was gone.

And good thing too, because he also saw the now caution tape wrapped light fixture and shattered table. Rina was standing by it, talking to a staff member with exaggerated arm waves. Niko was… clearly not pinned down or someone would have halted the entire thing. No… Niko was… in a battle. With, with that Akiho girl.

Taiga winced. He didn't like her. She said weird crap and did even weirder crap and no one, not even Rina, seemed capable of stopping her. She always had some kernel of truth in everything too, and for no reason. Still Niko was a damn good strategist. Fergus admitted the only thing that stopped Niko from defeating him was himself. Taiga figured that meant his all-but-blood brother was too stubborn for his own good.

He had this in the bag.

Still, Taiga sat down where he could see as two blurs crashed into each other in the middle of the coliseum. He couldn't help but wince. It sounded so painful. How could they do that?

The Digimon separated, the Piyomon spinning to the side and shooting up into the air. Sashenka leaped after her, using a piece of falling arena as leverage. A wing slammed into his throat as Piyomon dove. Niko flinched visibly. He was shaking, gripping the podium like it might shatter. By contrast, Akiho was dead silent. She didn't open her mouth at all, not even when Piyomon hit the ground. Taiga looked away.

"The hell's the matter with you?"

Taiga looked up and bit back a sneer. Kurosugi was ignoring him, watching the fight. "Digimon do that. That's how they win." He slurped an obscenely loud slurpy puff, grey eyes still watching the Digimon's movement, even though Taiga can't look. "They like it."

" _We don't like hurting ourselves for entertainment,"_ Fergus said in his soft, grandfather voice.

Now, Kurosugi looked, messing up his already awful black hair. "Yeah," he agreed, and Taiga really did consider throwing up now. "You don't o that." He paused, fingers hooked in his pockets. "You just… I dunno, use humans for power instead. And beat up little girls." He smirked at Taiga. "Seems like we finally have something in common, or we did anyway."

Taiga stood up to his full, stunted face, making sure to try and sneer into Kurosugi's face. "You wish," he said with the best scowl he could muster.

Kurosugi _laughed_. "Nah, you do." He twirled his V-Pet. Least if you were like me, you could pretend you weren't just doing this because you could. I mean, why are you _here_ if you're just gonna ruin it?"

Taiga swallowed a sudden lump in his throat. HE tried to speak but was cut off by a very loud, horrifying crash. He turned his head to see Sashenka, a lump of blood and fur, cratered into the coliseum grounds. Niko looked suitably horrified.

Akiho? She pressed a button on her V-Pet, and poured healing light over the bleeding shiba inu. "Thanks for the match," she said in a soft voice that Taiga didn't know how he could make out in the crowd.

Nyanko Tamer flashed on screen in bold white as she stepped away.

Taiga swallowed. Well, it was all over now.


	13. Chapter 13

**Chapter Thirteen: Someone Who Wants to Be Kind**

Nikolai, looking back, was not surprised at the way things had gone.

He hadn't gone in expecting much good to happen. Instead he had gone in with shaking legs and a fumbling mouth and plugged Sashenka despite the beeping protests from his partner, despite the concern even he could understand. He had looked up to see Akiho on the other side, smiling at people as she walked, as her username was passed around with awe, with fear. She limped, he realized, a rolling gait so faint on her left as she leaned onto her right. It was so fast and small that he almost wouldn't have noticed if he hadn't been looking anywhere but the virtual coliseum.

Then the battle started and he couldn't pay attention to how she stood,forced upright and completely still. She just watched Sashenka hesitate until he was thrown halfway across the field. He called orders pressed icons. It didn't make a difference. Her bird dodged fists like a dream and then struck with flame after flame. Still Sashenka gave as good as he got, knocking Digitorin hard and fast out of the sky s fast and so often. There was blood and craters everywhere, areas cracking and the sound was roaring and at one blow he thought they might have a shot-

And then that horrible sound. It was a heavy thud. A heavy thud, followed by silence. Followed by a sick feeling that Sashenka was dead. He was alive but his friend was dead and-

A couple beeps and then a golden light fell over his friend's body. Wounds closed and he twitched.

"Thanks for the match." Her voice was loud enough to be heard, but too soft to be anything mocking. She leaves the whole thing and for a moment, Niko just stands there. Then a couple kids reach him and they look into his face.

"you okay?" one asks, eyes big. Niko opens his mouth to lie, because he hasn't been okay since his father let almost a month ago now. But the boy continues. "You were awesome! You went and fought her anyway! After all that! That's so cool!"

It shouldn't cheer him up. Honestly, hearing that should piss him off. But it doesn't. Instead, something warmed in his chest, and gave Niko the energy to smile. He went down the steps and all the way to Rina, who hugged him tight to her chest. It cricked his neck but for once Nikolai didn't really care, letting her hug him through the embarrassment and the shame as he felt the tears not come for once. He just stayed perfectly still as his whole body slumped in relief.

"I watched," he heard her say. "You're brave."

Nikolai let out a snort. "I feel like an idiot."

"Sometimes brave people are idiots."

Nikolai didn't get much time to absorb this weird twist of logic because something his him in the back and knocked out his lungs and more than likely his spine. "Taiga, ow." Okay, now he felt better. "Bro." If he could be annoyed with his brother in all but blood, he was probably fine.

"Shut up." Taiga's voice was muffled in Nikolai's own sweatervest. "You're not dead."

"Not this time."

Taiga punched him and for once it actually hurt. "That's not funny."

It wasn't. He still didn't regret saying it.

He was supposed to be having personal space issues. They were all supposed to have personal space issues. But now he just wanted to stay like this.

Then a little girl ran past them with her phone clutched in her fists. Tears were streaming down her face. They watched her with wide horrified eyes until Akiho caught her gently. She knelt in front of her and Rina took that as her cue. She gently pulled herself away from the two of them, going to help. This left the boys to awkwardly untangle themselves and look away from each other. It really shouldn't be awkward to hug like that, but Taiga had a tendency to be super warm at the best of times. In the summer that was literal hell.

"Any idea what that's about?" Niko muttered, looking about the room. "You think Kurosugi deleted someone again?"

"Wouldn't put it past him." Taiga's voice was decidedly more bitter than usual. When Niko gave a rough gesture with his arm, he elaborated. "Ran into him earlier after my match. He was himself. A jerk. Said some rude crap." Taiga scowled hard enough to hurt his face. "He'd better not have killed some poor kid's partner."

"He'd probably be booted." Niko thought that but then dismissed it. The asshole hadn't gotten that pleasure so far. There was no reason for them to change their minds now.

Taiga nodded, then turned to him, giving that thousand yard worried stare. "Dude… what happened earlier?"

Niko swallowed, feeling his legs turn to jelly. His bro definitely wasn't talking about the match. "I… I don't know."

Taiga flinched at the waver in his voice and went to help him to a bench.

For a while, Niko just held his watch, seeing a sleeping Sashenka on the screen. His moving pixels filled him with relief. "It just creaked… and then it fell." He grimaced. "But Rina, Rina caught it. With one hand. With ease. People don't just _do that_. Taiga, normal humans don't just grab lighting structures with one arm and just don't break an arm." He very carefully rested his head on trembling hands. "I… do we even know who she is?"

* * *

Taiga went up the steps. Most people were watching now, a good few competitors having been knocked out of the running. It was horribly quiet. There were so many eyes. None seemed to be approving or disapproving. They just seemed to be around. There was quiet.

Then he saw Kurosugi from the other side. The crowd changed. HE almost saw something swim around them, something red and raw and hurt.

 _How many of these people did you ruin?_ Taiga couldn't help but wonder.

Kurosugi didn't seem to notice the thousands of eyes drilling into his entire body. He walked with a slouch up to the podium. His V-Pet hung over his fingers on the chain. He smirked at Taiga.

"Rematch?" he offered, eyes almost glowing in their pitch black amusement.

Taiga didn't know how to respond. So he didn't. He plugged the toy in instead, limbs shaking. Kurosugi watched him through the fringe of black hair. Then, a smile tugged up his mouth and for a moment he looked quite like someone else. Some one smaller, more fragile.

Then the image was gone with the smirk on his face. "Fine then. Let's go." He plugged his partner in and the coliseum formed. Fergus floated over the ground on one side. On the other, a goblin walked up into view, spinning a giant, dysfunctional club between both heavy green hands.

The buzzer sounded and Taiga tensed up. "Ready, Fergus."

" _Of course Taiga."_

Kurosugi always attacked immediately and got thrown back. That was the way it started and ended. He preferred offense to common sense.

However, Kuro touched his V-Pet. "Okay, Tyrone," he said in a voice that almost sounded kind. "Just like practice."

" _You got it, grump lump."_ Tyrone swung his club around and around and as he did, a pitch back energy started to surround him and it, growing and growing into a large sphere that quickly expanded, taking up a good third of the coliseum.

"Taiga," Fergus said softly. "Get ready. He's evolving."

Taiga flinched and nodded. People evolved their Digimon all of the time. It was a bit of a long running gag. But how was he supposed to prepare for something he hadn't fought?

Whatever it was, Fergus had to be able to handle it. He'd taken plenty before and won, right?

It was as he made that thought that Fergus let out a grunt and for a moment, fell out of the air. Blood dripped down his elegant robes.

The sphere exploded, leaving a bulky heaving man with his large blade outstretched.

Fergus put a surprised hand to his chest. "Titamon," he croaked. "Defeater of gods."

Kurosugi's smirk became a soft smile. "Sorry, dude," he said. "But unlike you, I've _got_ a reason to fight now."


	14. Chapter 14

**Chapter Fourteen: A Glass Covered Boulevard**

The room erupted with noise. It almost made Taiga roll under the arena projector in absolute _agony._ He was getting better with a lot of sound again after what that enragement child had done to him, but yelling like that was still way too much. Not to mention Fergus really did need him coherent and cognizant. If he was getting hurt (how, how was this possible? Fergus didn't just get hurt. The only exception was Nyanko Tamer and he was sure that had been Fergus having fun.), then Taiga had to end this and fast.

"Can you move? Fergus?"

His partner nodded slowly, golden mask slipping slightly under his eyes and to balance off his nose. That small opening was almost enough for another swing of Tyrone's all too heavy blade.

This time, however, Fergus was ready. He raised a bronze palm and the blade slowed. What he was distinctly unprepared for was the burst of dark energy that washed out from seemingly nowhere. Taiga looked around the simulated stadium as another formed seemingly from the ether. Tyrone thrust his hand forward in a fist and Taiga snapped out a single word-

"Up!"

It was a good command, he realized a split second too late it just wasn't enough for the sheer mass headed towards them.

As it was, Fergus was more than good at dodging, swiping his hand into one of two soldiers for those he couldn't avoid. Taiga had thought they were just black masses until he squinted and the form shifted before his eyes into men brandishing weapons wider than their heads. His eyes were going to hurt at the end of this fight, that was for darn sure. He kept watching for a moment, but when Fergus' only sound came out as huffed breaths of air, he looked away, blinking hard.

He squinted up to see Kurosugi, eyes on the fight and unflappable. He was even smirking a little. "What's wrong?" he asked, grinning at Taiga, like this wasn't serious. "He's hurt. Command him."

"He knows what he's doing," Taiga said, keeping his voice calm and trying not to waver.

"Really."

Fergus caught himself on the stands on the opposite side, raising his hands. He began to glow and flicker, eyes glowing beneath the mask. The soldiers rushed him once again, some seeping up from the ground beneath his floating robe. He dodged. The sun hovering about him began to expand, wrapping up the monsters in blinding light.

Fergus muttered, the chant coming from his mouth just fast enough no one could translate. Unfortunately, it was not fast enough to stop the blade from hitting again, cutting through the fabric in another slash of red.

"Nice." Kurosugi whistled. Fergus backpedaled, as the robe turned a sticky red. Taiga felt ready to be sick.

Maybe it had just been the low resolution on his computer but the fights had never seemed this painful before, not even this real. He had just… hated fighting. How could this, how could this be fun?

"Cause fighting is fun." Kurosugi looked at him as though he had spoken aloud. "Haven't you ever fought before?"

"Why would I?" Taiga controlled his voice with all of his will power and he didn't know why he bothered. He just did.

"Why would anyone enjoy a trial?" Fergus' voice was softer than it should have been in this situation. "Trials are meant for growth, not enjoyment."

Kurosugi smiled. "Maybe I'm just a masochist then."

"Only reason I could think of for _bullying kids!"_ Taiga jumped at the sound of the stands crunching into dust from another swing of Tyrone. It was ridiculously huge. He winced and groaned in sudden pain, only to see Fergus fly higher, out of reach enough to chant.

As Fergus continued his steady chant, the world began to glow white, threads dancing about as they rushed towards the ground.

Kurosugi winced at the sound of the roaring light and Tyrone's snarl of pain but didn't speak for a moment. When he did, his voice was so quiet. "What are you doing here then?"

Fergus raised his head. "Teaching."

"Tomato, tomato," Tyrone said, taking his weapon with his other hand. He swung heavily up and the soldiers threw themselves forward at his command. "You're just not killing them in body. You're breaking their spirits instead, ya know. Digimon love this too. They shouldn't be afraid of ya, you're suppsoed to be a god, aincha?"

Fergus twitched, a full-body motion as he rose. His miniature sun grew like the pulsing of a heart. "You doubt what I am?"

"Nah, nah." Another swipe, then dodge. Another crushed spot of land. The heat from the sun beneath Fergus' feet was starting to scorch the ground below. "How could I doubt it? You're a Shakamon. You've got Yggdrasil eating out of your pretty little palms. Except, well, Yggdrasil ain't much of a great fellow, huh?"

Fergus twitched again. His mask slipped. "I… I beg your pardon."

"I ain't talking about the current one of course." Tyrone paused, bulging arms almost pulsing with energy as he adjusted the stance of his heavy legs. "I'm talking about the other one. You know 'em, right? Real hardass. Hated being around others, preferred to go solo, call all the shots. Had to get its face beat. Ya know?"

Fergus didn't answer, flames spreading like a halo. Tyrone swiped them down. His eyes were completely calm.

"Fergus, get back!" Taiga called. "He's trying to get in your head, ignore him!"

"I'm all right Taiga," Fergus replied without looking back. "Please don't worry. Focus on the field."

Even though Fergus' tone remained its calm self (or what he thought was normal for him anyway), it seemed less gentle somehow. There was a hard. Bitter edge to the words that wasn't there before. Not that Taiga really understood the conversation to begin with. He had no clue about anything to do with Yggdrasil ad he wasn't sure he wanted to know, if it made his partner this way.

Still, he probably wasn't going to listen anyway. "All right."

"Really?" Kurosugi let out a snort. "You're just going to go along with it?"

Taiga wanted to snap at him but couldn't at the sound of Tyrone's sword swing once more. Fergus flew backwards at the force of it, hitting and nearly breaking through the wall. He spat and hacked and Taiga gaped.

"You looking at me yet?" Tyrone called across the field. "Looking at what's in front of ya yet?!"

Fergus hissed, the sound settling in the ears of those watching. "I am always watching."

"The old hag said that too."

There was only one way to describe what happened after that, in Taiga's mind.

His partner snapped.

The construct exploded.

…

From inside the old, rickety house of her grandfather by name, Mikagura Mirei awoke from her sleep with a strange weight in her heart. She pressed a bronze hand to her chest and looked outside. She made herself stand on lead legs and strode outside. Leaning on the doorframe, she looked to the great tower at the endge of the city.

"Aniki?" she murmured, tasting the word in the back of her throat.

There was no response to her whispered recollection of words, of course. There never was.

But as she watched, the bright light surrounding the coliseum tower only grew larger, heavier.

"Don't cry, aniki," she said, reaching out her hand. "You're not alone."

Mirei said that, but she knew best of all that that simply wasn't true.

…

When the light faded, it did not vanish entirely. A halo remained, floating over Tyrone's collapsed body on the ground. He coughed and wheezed even as powdery light fell on him like snowflakes.

Fergus remained floating, a lopsided hover that was only covered by the harsh panting and blood dripping to the ground.

"You..." he managed to croak out. "You will not surpass my trial! You are not worthy!"

Kurosugi's smirk was gone. It was replaced with something, something that wasn't the childish anger from every other time he lost. It only grew as Tyrone shrank down to a mere Goblimon. But Fergus didn't shrink. Tyrone spat out a tooth.

"Screw your trial," he croaked. "I'd rather be a failure than your puppet, like that kid." Then he was logged out as Kurosugi unplugged his V-Pet. He walked away with his head held high. But it was more of a pride thing than anything else.

The smirk was gone. The pride was gone. He was defeated.

Taiga? Taiga was tired.


	15. Interlude 1A

**Interlude: 1A In Which the Sun Meets a Flame**

Fergus awoke in the middle of a battered room.

The carpeting was ripped to shreds. There was the distinct smell of cooking meat and dried blood. Even as a god, his senses had not dulled to the feral, ruthless nature of the universe. If anything, he was more aware of it than ever.

He said nothing about it though. There was no one to say it to in the room. He settled on the floor, examining his surroundings and lowering the heat of his sun.

He was supposed to be resting in the V-Pet. He was supposed to be healing after that mess of a battle. Not that the injury bothered him, it didn't. He agreed with those wild children on that much: fighting and getting injured was not unusual for Digimon nor humans. Its natural place in the state of the world was only sensible. That didn't mean he liked it.

He could picture a little girl left on the ground like a piece of roadkill whenever he closed his eyes if he needed to remind himself of _why_. He could think of his young human, who had trembled every time the V-Pet sounded for the first week and a half.

Fergus exhaled heavily and rubbed underneath his mask. There was no point to thinking about those things now. He needed to assess the situation, get to where he needed to go to get back to his human. His… somewhat human.

He needed to explain that to him, didn't he?

As he relaxed his breathing, no longer feeling the rage that had curdled beneath his skin and muscle, there was a sob outside of the room. Then another reached his ears, heartwrenching and young. They continued to cry until there was the sound of soft foosteps padding towards the sliding door.

"Susu," murmured a voice. Fergus paused. That voice sounded vaguely familiar. He couldn't say from where, not until they kept speaking. "Lemme look okay? I'm sorry. I shoulda been faster."

There was another sob, followed the weak noise of a whistle.

"I know, I hate it too. Please?" The other girl pleaded, familiar voice taking on a nervous fear. "I gotta see if we need uncle's kit. Your eye's sensitive."

"…neeee"

Fergus moved closer to the door. As he did however, a knife went flying through it. He dodged it with ease. Certainly he could make it drop but something told him not to. Something said just to let it pass. There was a hitch of breath. Silence then reigned.

At least until the door slid open and Fergus' eyes went wide.

A much smaller Rindou Akiho than he had met stared at him. Her pink eyes glowed an astonishing red in the dim light. A kitchen knife was in her free hand, poised to throw. Or to stab. Normally he wouldn't be too concerned at a kitchen knife, but considering this child had sent one through a door, he felt that perhaps he should be a little concerned.

"How long have you been here?"

Her question was softly curt, none of that gentle cajoling he had heard through the door.

"You're not going to ask what I am?" he asked in return, covering his confusion with his own gentle query.

The little girl shook her head. "You're a Digimon." She said it the same way a young child would say 'you're a puppy.' to a passing dog. "Digimon come ang go all the time."

She said this like it should have been obvious and it almost was.

Akiho lifted her knife. It would have been comical or disturbing if it weren't for the shine in her eyes, the unforgiving sheen which promised sheer hellfire and brimstone if he didn't answer in a satisfactory manner. It didn't matter if he wa a god or not.

He could believe that, considering her and her partner's track record.

"Only a few minutes," he finally said. "Now what is wrong over there?"

The knife did not fall. "Susu will be okay." Her voice did not waver. "I take care of her. Now, you should get out of here."

"Or you'll stab me like I'm butter." The sarcasm dripped out before he could stop himself.

The girl smiled and it was the brightest smile he had seen on a child that smelled like that much death. "Yep."

She meant it. It was in the way her feet were positioned on the ground, in how she only blinked when necessary for her eyes and the rest of the time was looking at every vulnerable point on him that she could reach with her short, mismatched limbs.

"What happened to you, child?"

Rindou Akiho did not cry. She wanted to. Her chin wobbled, her eyes softened, she breathed a little too fast.

"A lot."

…

It took a good five more minutes of cajoling, but he could look at the little sister. Much like Rindou Akiho stood with ferocity, one hand slower than the other, the darker red eye consistently delayed, the small girl called Susu curled up into a ball in the furthest corner and wanted to be ignored. And yet, by the pungent smell in the air, it was clear. She could not be. The great carving into her own face was proof of that. Done by a blade, a real blade that meant to go higher but missed by just enough. There were stitches.

"Where are your parents?"

Akiho stared at him from on her table now. She watched him summon tickling flames for her sister's chubby fingers to grasp. "Interrogating someone."

"He's alive?" Akiho nodded as Fergus pulled his hands away. "Good."

"Why?"

He looked at her, at the gaunt shape of her face., at the too empty sink.

She didn't blink again.

"You are too young to massacre people," he said, thinking of a very similar girl. Thinking of a girl who had almost cried at blood on a beautiful dress. Thinking of a despair wrenched face as failure after failure did no good. "Not when you don't have to."

Akiho regarded him with curiosity. "What if I haveta?

Fergus swallowed. "Then forgive yourself. Because there may be a way to avoid it."

"Not always." She leaned forward on her elbows, looking at the relaxed Subaru who didn't feel the pain leaving her face. "Youre nice to want to though."

"Am I?" Fergus smiled. "That is high praise from a butter knife user."

She blushed and her face blurred before him. Taiga's voice became audible in the span of a few moments.

"Fergus! Wake up! Fergus!"

His face was blurry, but Fergus could hear the boy's fear as clearly as he heard everything else. Tiny Akiho looked puzzled as he tried to speak and failed, as the world returned to a rickety village and Taiga's concern.

"Are you okay?" he said, voice, as always slightly muffled through the V-Pet.

Fergus swallowed heavily. _No, no I am not._ The previous fight still lurked in the back of his mind, irritatingly so, and now every time he closed his eyes, ther was a new image in the back of his eyelids. Two gaunt, scarred little girls, each afraid of him.

And now one was a few meters away, smiling at a joke and offering Nikolai Petrov an ice cream cone. Did times change? Or where they not the same girl?

He supposed when they fought her, they would just have to find out.

After all, even when he was holding back, she and her digimon managed to break through his trial, like it or not.


	16. Chapter 15

**Chapter Fifteen: A Desire Left Incomplete**

Akiho swallowed a gulp of water and gently pressed her fingers to her temples. Digitorin chirruped in her space, her little digimon apartment. Akiho glanced at the ceiling, then at the clean up crew. She let out a heavy sigh. This break was taking way too long to pass by and just end so she could get this fight over it. She chewed on a piece of licorice and leaned once more. _At least they're removing the light pole at some point._ There were construction crew workers and police entering the large arcade room, but no one was canceling the tournament. No one was really moving to leave. There weren't any consolation talks or anything similar. It would be amusing if it weren't so exasperatingly incompetent.

"You could always melt it down," Digitorin reasoned. "Make things much easier."

"And get me into trouble, yes Tori excellent plan," she replied, barely moving her mouth. Her pink bird let out a scoff of bemusement. "It's nothing to show off, Tori," she said instead.

"I personally think it is."

Akiho said nothing to that, only quirking her lips up a hair to the left. Her right eye winked closed, watering a second before and she sighed out loud. This was taking too long, even by her standards of impatience.

Rina was glancing at her as she sat beside her friends. Akiho pointedly stared away from it the more she did so. She was going to have to make this decision on her own. Akiho was going to thrash the daylights out of that Shakamon.

" _Then forgive yourself, because there must be a way to avoid it."_

What did forgiveness have to do with her duty? What point was there _avoiding_ her duty? Forgiveness was a cracked open door. And a cracked open door was an opening she hadn't been able to risk at the time. Here?

Control lapsed for a moment and the air _hurt_. Akiho caught herself, one hand digging into her chair and shattering its flimsy metal. The sound would have been loud enough if it wasn't overwhelmed by the sound of voices and rapid preparations. Akiho rubbed her fingers by reflex, not even feeling the pain that should have been.

As she reached for the water bottle on the floor, Rina dangled it from her hands. Akiho blinked up at her in surprise. Not that she had gotten over so fast, but that she was there at all. "Shouldn't you be over there?"

Rina sat down beside her, lips pulled into a pout. "They keep looking at me funny," she replied, taking a swig of her water before passing it back. "You'd think you'd just be happy you're still alive."

"Still not a normal human ability, Rina-chi," Akiho countered. Her lips quirked into a teasing smile, but it was only just enough. Her breathing was still a bit too harsh for her liking. But she bore it until it went soft once more and didn't make her lungs cringe and scream. She took another breath to test it and make certain.

Rina's pout shifted to a blank sort of frown. "I ruined it huh?"

Akiho looked over at the two boys. Well, they weren't boys. They were teenagers. Stuck in that halfway space that meant everything and everyone was screwed up and no one understood you. "No idea," she admitted after a couple of minutes of observation. She had only looked away when Taiga had looked at her, eyes narrowed. It had taken her a moment to notice why. Rina's hand was resting on her right leg. Nothing sensual, just there. "You're their friends."

"And you're not, so you'll know better."

Akiho sighed again. "I still don't know. They're going to ask eventually. So you can take the bullet and tell them now, tell them before we go, or leave without telling them. Or tell them while we're there."

Rina chewed her lip. "I don't like any of those."

Akiho said nothing ot that comment, drinking her water. "Well, if you think of a better option, let me know when I'm done knocking your second boy into the pavement." The buzzer went off and she rose to her feet.

Rina looked at her and Akiho watched the red eyes swim in emotions Rina didn't even understand she felt. "Don't make him cry."

Akiho smiled sadly. "I'll try."

…

Taiga walked up to the battlefield with his V-Pet making his knuckles white and to a low murmur of silence. There wasn't any joy or pride when Kurosugi had gone down and there certainly wasn't any right now. There would have been cheering over the vanquishing of a villain in the stories, but he wasn't sure that was what even happened anymore. More than likely, that had just been his own imagination talking.

What was the point of this tournament anymore? Or was there one at all? Had the little enragement child planned it out? Or was it someone else, already with plans cycling out of control? He didn't know. What he did know was that Akiho was waiting for him at the podium, pink eyes red in the strange arcade light. She was watching him with slow, lazy blinks of her eyes. It wasn't normal, though he was starting to suspect nothing would be normal for him ever again.

Akiho's blinking stare turned into a smile. "Ready for a good match?"

Taiga swallowed and looked at Fergus. "Are you sure?"

"I am, child." His partner was calm again, definitely the calm before the storm.

Akiho looked at her own V-Pet and her smile changed, softened into something he thought he had seen on someone else's face. Their hair even looked a little like hers. Like the gentle woman and the kindly man who for a moment had saved him and asked so many badgering worrying questions that he had no idea how to answer and still didn't these days.

But that woman had disappeared and he thought he remembered her husband had too and he didn't need them anymore anyway.

"Let's wage war, Tori."

The bird let out a chirp of glee, almost a malicious sound of clacking beak. "Let's give 'em a roar!"

The V-Pet's plugged in, and the room exploded into light.

Within seconds, phoenix and god hovered over the coliseum. Fergus must have smiled, for Digitorin let out a caw of bemused pleasure.

"It's a shame you're so wild," Fergus began, taking initiative before Taiga could make a sound. The words weaved with tangible power. You have so much more you can bring to this world."

Tori clacked her beak once more. "You think so? I think I'm exactly who and what I want to be!" She spread her multiple great wings and golden rain spread out, engulfing the visions of the competitors and onlookers. An explosion of stars. Fergus' lip curled.

"Are you certain? That attack is a little bit insulting. Are you saying I am impure?" He clapped his hands and the sun beneath his feet exploded to twice its size before drawing back. As it did, the golden rains drew into a small twister, shrinking and fading into nothing but wisps about the sun. Tori however, was no longer right in front, but soaring overhead, great bursts of flame emitting from her mouth. The strands rippled at the heat, beginning to melt at the heat wherever flame met Chrome Digizoid.

Taiga winced. "Fergus, intercept! Don't let her keep-"

"Crash and fall," Akiho interrupted.

Both fighters moved to obey, Fergus rising to grab the bird by the mouth. Unfortunately, all he met was the heavy weight of a crashing giant bird. He caught and grimaced, making to throw her off.

"Down!" Taiga shouted. "Spellwork, fast!"

"Jet."

Fergus chanted and started to orbit. Taiga winced. HE should have thought of that. It wouldn't change much of Akiho's current strategy. The best way to start countering someone invulnerable to malice or hostility was to destroy the surrounding area. Inanimate objects didn't exactly have the free will enough to consider harming anything, nor did concepts. It had been Nyanko Tamer's strategy whenever he got bold enough to challenge her, which was rare.

It was the strategy he got when she was _toying with him._ HE oculd see it now, in the way she stood, arms crossed. She wasn't looking at the fight too much. Her eyes were intent on him.

And then, out of nowhere, they weren't. "Spread," she ordered. Digitorin spread her wings and the Starlight Explotion burst out again, followed by flame and something tinging the battlefield a brilliant silver. Taiga paused a second to remember a Hououmon's typical stats. He had no idea what that silver was, but knowing the weird girl, it was a way to finish a battle of attrition. Which again, also countered a Shakamon.

"Fergus, get up from that thing she's making! I can't figure out what it is, but don't mess with it."

Fergus merely nodded, movin towards Digitorin directly. Taiga winced, but it wasn't likely that Fergus would do anything violent. He just had to get a hold of Digitorin and wipe out her energy to attack. It would be a simple illusion but-

One footstep, then two. Then more.

The roar of the battle left his ears for a moment as he heard voices. Mutterings. People. Onlookers. Disgruntlement, it tasted bitter and felt like bile.

 _This loser._

 _Isn't he gonna fight?_

 _Seriously, Nyanko Tamer's gonna win by points._

 _Good._

Taiga shook his head rapidly, trying to clear it. The points system. He'd forgotten about the god damn points. They were rarely a problem. Most Tamers just brute forced it or cleverly worked around a knock out. But some people just wore it down to the wire and no one was down within five or ten minutes.

The whispers came again.

 _Cheating bastard forgot all about it. Great job blabbermouth._

 _Doesn't matter. He can't even get a-_

Taiga's shoulders hunched, only for a loud slam to echo through the halls, silencing the entire room, even the few people dumb enough to try playing other games in here right now.

Akiho looked about the room, glaring at the crowd with nothing less than undisguised contempt. "If you all think he's so lame then you come up here and fight him yourselves!" she barked. Out f the corner of his eye, Taiga saw Rina grin. "If not, the peanut gallery can _shut it_. This is a game, a fight, not some playground bullies. If that's all you're here to do, then beat it."

She turned back to the fight and rested her hand on the V-Pet toy. No one spoke. Then she looked at Taiga and said, very firmly. "Quit spacing out. Fergus needs you."

Taiga snapped to, looking to the glimmering coliseum to see Digitorin's wing slam right into Fergus' throat. The Shakamon coughed and grabbed hold, making to chant-

Only to stop and stare, horrified, as a scythe plunged through the ground, making to skewer them both.

Akiho let out a sound like a wild animal and pressed her hand over the V-Pet. The room was flooded in blood red light.

Then something laughed through the speakers, loud and long like the grim reapers of fairy tales.

"Look who responded quickly this time," it whispered. "Reflexes won't save you now, murderer. Not from me."

The ground beneath Akiho's feet opened up and Taiga only had enough time to see her eyes widen before she dropped out of sight, red light fading with her.

The arcade was silent once more. Then Akiho's V-Pet clattered to the floor. Numbly, mouth agape, Taiga went to pull Fergus free. The machine felt hot to the touch, and not the kind that warmed him on long, cold nights. He made to pick up Digitorin, who he could now clearly hear screaming in dismay.

It was only when he did so that he heard Niko yell Rina's name and the entire coliseum apparatus exploded, the pieces harmlessly grazing over his clothes and hair. He made himself look back and see Rina shining bright, eyes scarlet with pain and _fury._

She spoke something he couldn't even try and understand. Then she left, leaving the shattered remains of four more arcade toys when she went.


	17. Chapter 16

**Chapter Sixteen: A Cross Some People Bear**

"One of them fell."

Ivy made a face, looking like she cared. "The plan's falling apart already."

"That's because there is no plan, genius." Rue flicked her tail at the younger cat. "There's duct tape and willpower and that's the best we've got. Don't give Mo-Mirei more problems than you are."

Mirei's lips twitched as she typed, ignoring the innocent mistake. "That one should be fine. The Soul reading is somewhere towards Super Ultimate at its lowest."

Rue wrinkled her nose. "So a data brat." A Chosen brat but from as close to home soil as possible. "But how did they get through without a gate or a Device?" she typed rapidly, well as rapidly as a cat could, scanning the remaining footage before the sudden meltdown and explosion of the coliseum. According to the Digimon outside (and Ivy), GiGO was once again losing their cookies. It made her grin a bit too wide, fangs bared at no one in particular. Nothing against Earth, or well, this Earth, but there was something about giant conglomerates of people that made her skin get goosebumps on her fur.

"A Digimon likely caused it," Mirei murmured in reply, paying everything very little mind. "With YMIR trying to dig its roots back into the world, who knows what the mutations and disease do to Digimon? Intense emotions cause intense changes."She almost laughed. "It would be an interesting experiment."

"So it wasn't you?" Ivy leaned over and clambered up to her side, head butting against her fingers. Mirei pet her and shook her head no. "Maybe your new apprentice has gotten into something then."

Mirei let out a soft groan and rubbed her head. She hadn't felt that strange sensation of stomach discomfort (unease? Was that what it was called?) in days now. Yet there was still no sight of Kuga Yuuya. "I certainly hope not. He is very valuable." And very lonely. But she had no idea if saying that would do her or him any good.

"We can go look," Rue offered. Ivy hissed a whine of discontent and earned a smack for it. "Oh stop being lazy, furball. You've been waiting to help your mum, haven't you?"

Ivy sat up at this, Holy Ring glowing in the light of the monitors. "Yeah! Good point!" She raced to her paws and towards the door.

Rue grinned at Mirei, who only cocked her head to the side and lifted one dark brown hand as if to wave. Instead she sent an angel and a devil towards Infinity Mountain, light and darkness hand in hand.

* * *

Needless to say, the tournament was canceled.

Even more needless to say, Taiga and Niko didn't see Rina for a good week and a half.

For the first time, neither of them was in a particular hurry to see her. Niko was twitchy with the desire to visit her, but just as mouthy about staying the hell away from someone who blew up technology and caught lighting fixtures with her fist. Taiga agreed… kind of.

No news was printed about Akiho being dragged into the ground. What were they gonna say though, really? More strangely, noo one was paid off or bribed to keep quiet either, which alone was a bit of a surprise. There weren't even missing person pictures or news stories, which made Taiga sneer. Of course there wouldn't be. They hadn't given a hoot about kids before, why start now? He didn't have to like the girl to not recognize BS as BS.

But now? Now with this nice handful of difficult paper packets, they had to go find Rina. Niko had her address, but apparently he'd never been there.

"Why?" Taiga couldn't help but ask, jumping at every sound as they walked because he had never known Tokyo to have explicitly bad neighborhoods until right now that weren't the red light district. And this distinctly wasn't. There were too thin doors and broken windows in some buildings, and demolition warnings around over half of them. Niko shot him a look and Taiga raised his hands. "Never mind, forget I asked."

Still, Sashenka was pointing further in on Nikolai's GPS. Despite the severity of the situation, the blue shiba inu wagged his tail eagerly at the sight of them. Taiga had decided to tell Niko about the reality of Digimon being talking, active, intelligent creatures. Niko had just shrugged it off. He had more pressing concerns. His hair was a mess, no longer slicked back but all over his face with anxiety. Still, he was gentler with the V-PEt now, at least.

Summer vacation and stress did Niko no good. He organized everything except himself, and that included his entire bookshelf. Twice. That was why they were out here.

"I can't believe she lives this far out," Niko grumbled. "Six stops on a crowded train. No wonder she stays over all of the time."

"I wonder how she doesn't get groped," Taiga mused, rubbing his shin where he'd kicked a guy for doing that to someone else.

Niko twitched. "Don't talk about that."

Taiga flushed. "Right, right, sorry. Mouth's been running lately."

Niko looked like he was about to say something but didn't. Instead he stopped outside another of many worn down apartment complexes. "Think we're here."

Taiga squinted at it. It was cleaner, with good windows and a healthy tree trying to grow into it. Still, the way Rina and her roommate acted, imagining her living here was causing a big question mark to appear over his head, kinda literally.

"What number?" he finally managed, for lack of anything else to say. Even he and Niko lived better than this. His skin was crawling with bad memories, memories of snow on every part of his body, memories of ratty blankets being stolen just because they could be. For a moment Taiga looked away, contemplating a spot to throw up. But he resisted, feeling Niko staring at him with raw concern.

He stared right back.

Eventually, thankfully, Niko gave up and answered. "202." Taiga let him lead, shoulders hunched. The other occupants had to be watching them. He didn't know why he felt that way, but he did.

When they got up there, Niko knocked. There was no response. Then Taiga knocked, a little harder. Nothing.

"Did she give you a key?" Niko grunted, face turning pink. Taiga swallowed, envy really pooling in his stomach. Of course Niko had the girlfriend who willingly would let him come in whenever. It was hard not to be jealous of someone who had the clichel great girl friend despite being the blond and Japanese stereotype of a troublemaker. "Well, use it. Bro, what if she like, ran off?" He hoped she wouldn't, not after Mr. Petrov.

Nikolai grimaced, looking away, before pulling the small key out of his pocket and opening the door. He hadn't needed that image either.

The living room was streaked with sunlight, and dishes were neatly stacked on the floor, along with glasses and rows of coffee creamer packets.

"Rina drinks coffee?" He kept his voice down and was not sure why.

Niko was staring for a moment and, and Taiga peeks to find out why when he eventually gets an answer. "Special occasions." His voice is a croak. Taiga follows his eyes.

Rina's on the couch, curled under the thick white comforter Niko had gotten her for White Day the year before. Her clothes were discarded for a sports bra and shorts, which Taiga could see in occasional peeks. The sunlight was brightest there, and bathed her in a literal orange glow.

That wasn't what Niko was staring at however. What Niko was staring at was the strange, moving cord poking out by Rina's left leg. As she turned over, it moved and twitched. The USB port on the other side wavered as she breathed.

"Uhm." Taiga managed. "Is that…?"

"Might be." Niko sounded nauseous, and almost set the papers down a little too hard. "Ye-Yeah, think it is."

It was a tail. Rina had a USB cord on her for a tail.


	18. Chapter 17

**Chapter Seventeen: A Person, Like Always**

It took everything Taiga had in his body to close the door before slumping to the floor. Niko was already there, pamphlets in hand. He stared at Rina's sleeping form, unable to word just how screwed up this was right now.

After a moment, Taiga managed to think of a few words. "Bro," he whispered, watching the port sway and twitch like there were flies in the room. "I think you might have had sex with a robot."

Niko reflexively smacked him over the head, still staring off into space.

There was a shuffle of movement. Then Rina's muffled voice came from in the pillow. "'m not a robot." She raised her head to look at them, drool dried on the side of her mouth. "Got some human organs left. Mostly mechanical, though. Not enough sex organs aside from the outer bi-"

"I do not need the details," Taiga uttered before he could stop himself.

Rina yawned. "Yeah, guess you don't."

She was too relaxed, way too calm for someone who had just been found out about… a whole metric ton of HSQ. But the droopy way her eyes fell told Taiga she was probably still half asleep, if they were lucky. Then the droopy eyes opened fully and she looked over at Niko. She leaned to lay on her side, hair flopping about in a casually cute way that almost had Taiga wanting to puke rainbows. She smiled an almost private smile that made Niko flush.

"I didn't think you'd ever use that key," she told him as she fluffed a pillow with one hand. "Not unless I was gone."

Niko struggled visibly to regain his faculties, but when he did, he scowled. "Stop doing that! That distraction thing!" Taiga looked between them, baffled. "You always do this! You make it about me, or us, or this! We need to talk about this, Rina. Like couples -friends-" He added the last part with a wince."Do."

"There's nothing to talk about." Before their eyes, the smile slipped away, leaving a face blank as a chalkboard. Taiga tried not to look away. He didn't like seeing that face, that lack of expression, ever. "You saw something you shouldn't have. You should just forget about it. Everything will be normal again." She sat up, going to pick up things from the floor. "I just have to finish what we started. That's all."

"It damn well isn't that simple!" Niko pushed himself to get up from the floor, but then Rina pressed a finger to his forehead. It knocked him right back down. She shook her head, as if in distaste.

"Doesn't have to be simple for me to handle it." She smiled at Taiga now, and, maybe it was the realization of Rina's lack of humanity, but her teeth looked much sharper than teeth should all of a sudden. "Go take him home Taiga. Please?"

Taiga swallowed. It was really easy to cave to Rina. Not because she tended to have no personal space when she wanted something or when she used logic it outdid everyone and everything. And if it wasn't actual logic, it was personal logic. It was… it was honestly really annoying

"No," he managed to say. Her eyebrows quirked. "No, I can't. He's right." She regarded him and he almost stopped. But something, perhaps a memory, made him continue. "You don't actually want us to leave. You want to talk to us. So talk. Come on, it can't be that bad."

"You're apparently a gynoid or whatever," Niko added, the flush on his face receding to his usual pale skin. "Can't be much weirder than that."

Rina smiled, lips lopsided and struggling to contain themselves. "I… guess not." She sat back down on her sofa, thinking. Taiga watched her bare legs, wanting to tell her to put something on but not wanting to break the fragile silence. "Let me get some tea," she said, getting up. "Then I'll tell you."

"Really?" Niko's skepticism was mirrored by Taiga's raised eyebrow.

Rina beamed at him. "Yeah! If you really want to hear it." She picked up things as she went. "Put your shoes under the couch, okay? The landlady here doesn't like strange boys!"

"Who are you calling strange?" Taiga managed to say. She laughed again.

"You guys, duh." As she bustled about, she gestured for them to sit on the fluffed up the pillows as he did, muttering to himself. "It's not dirty, Niko, geez!"

"You were asleep here!" He retorted.

Taiga blinked at him. "What are you being all domestic for?"

Niko sputtered. "Bro, how is this domestic?"

"Well you sound like a married couple, so I just..." Taiga was grinning now. He'd probably feel this on his ear for an hour but it would be so worth it.

"What?"

Rina put out a plate of cookies. "Well." She swung her hands in a dramatic arc. "That's a compliment, you know. Marrying a rich, white foreigner-"

"I'm _half-Japanese_!"

"Marrying into luxury, don't the girls like that?" She went back into the other room, getting the whistling tea kettle.

Taiga raised an eyebrow. "I dunno about rich but you'll at least be healthy." He yelped at the blow. "Oh come on, man! She's joking!"

Rina tittered at them, eyes on the V-Pets now on the table. Akiho's pink one remained quiet. After setting down the kettle, she picked it up. "Come on Tori," she said to it, pressing a button. "Anything?"

"...No. Of course not! She's not on File, I told you!" The bird's voice, so confident in battle, was now petulant with dismay and fear. "Or if she was, I can't fly there! Not without losing signal."

"Wait what?" Taiga swallowed the tea and for the first time in his life it didn't feel scalding. IT felt like relief. "What do you mean 'on File?'"

Rina made to answer but the Piyomon inside answered first. "What are you, an idiot?! That was a Digimon who interfered in the coliseum! Aki fell in here! Why do you think she hasn't come back yet?"

"Child, calm yourself," Fergus began and V.V. let out a sigh.

"Please don't set her off like that," he said. "Aki is her life, Fergus, I've told you this. She's not just gonna calm down if you treat her like another hysterical woman."

"I wasn't even implying that, V.V."

"Sure sounded like it from here!"

Taiga couldn't help but stare at the V-Pets. He looked up at Rina. "Are they usually like this?"

Rina waved her hand, sitting on a cushion. "Sometimes. Tori's just not good with others." She sighed, gulping down her own mug of water. "Anyway, Tori, I can give you enough power to keep a signal for the time being, so you can go look a little further."

The pink V-Pet remained still for a moment. "All right. Don't push yourself, Rina." The screen went black.

Rina let out a heavy exhale.

Sashenka, who had been quiet so far, finally spoke. "Is there a way for me to communicate with my master?"

"Severe trauma to the head?" V.V. offered.

"V.V." Fergus' scolding only got Rina to snort. Niko looked between her and Taiga and she elaborated. "Sasha wants to talk with you."

Niko blinked, frowning a little. "Oh. I see..." He folded his hands together. "I wish I could talk to him too..."

Rina smiled a little and didn't speak. Her eyes closed.

Then, her phone rang. She grabbed it with the speed of a cat and held it to her ear. "Hello?" Both young men watched her expression visibly shift, almost slacken. "Yes… Kenzo-san? Yes. I, sure, I'm going to be home today. My classmates are bringing homework… no. no. Of course not."

Niko looked at taiga and got a puzzled frown in return. Rolling his eyes, Niko grabbed a pen and scribbled on a spare piece of paper.

"Haven't we heard the name 'Kenzo' before?"

Taiga raised an eyebrow but then Rina spoke up again. "Are you sure that's what you want me to do?" Pause. Then, she laughed. "I'm saying that because it's a win-win, Kenzo-san… okay. If that's really what you want. Mm. I will. Goodbye." She ended the call and let out a heavy sigh. Then, she snatched up three cookies and barely crunched them into crumbs before swallowing.

"… Who was that?" Niko asked, finally looking back at her.

Rina grinned like a skull. "That would be Kuga Kenzo, my boss. He wants me to find and kill his oldest son."


	19. Chapter 18

**Chapter Eighteen: A Reason to Persevere**

The silence of the room almost caused the tea to grow cold. Then Rina sat down and gulped hers down. "So," she said, trying to smile normally and failing miserably. "Where do you want me to start?" The two of them stared at her and she shrugged. "Well, it's a lot to chew over and I dunno what would be considered the important bits for you."

"Well, we could start with the fact that the current _sole provider of the internet wants you to kill his kid."_ Niko's sarcasm was thick, even for him, though in this case Taiga really couldn't blame him. "Why the hell does he think you can find the guy, let alone murder him? Why would he want his son dead anyway? What about that?"

"Probably because I've killed people for him before, and because he knows of the existence of other worlds."

Rina hadn't even blinked nor hesitated to give that response. Taiga swallowed at the casual statement, at the way she looked at him, then Niko. He decided to ignore the first part. Niko could touch that. The idea of murder made his stomach backflip. "He… does?"

Rina nodded, refilling their cups. "What else was Mr. Petrov doing at work? I did read a few of his reports."

Nko almost choked. "What the hell does my shitty dad have to do with any of this?" Taiga reached out and gave his arm a reassuring pat.

Rina touched the V-Pet. "You can't tell? Your dad works for GIGO. GIGO created the V-Pet in this world. GIGO's CEO knows of other worlds. Your dad went missing weeks ago and nothing has been reported. Kuga Yuuya went missing in the company building and no one's done anything. Aki disappeared in front of a giant room of children and no one is _doing anything._ " She took a cookie and shattered it. "Because GIGO won't let them, right? Why wouldn't they let them? I mean, imagine the chaos. The _fear."_

She looked away and got to her feet, pacing faster than people really should. Her words were still clear as she walked. "Just imagine, the toy _everyone ever_ owns actually has living creatures in it and you have them fight for bits and bloodsport. It's an entire economy. Not only that, but people have been disappearing into this world for years."

"What do you mean, years?" But as the words left Taiga's mouth, he remembered a woman with pink hair being around one minute and then when he opened his eyes, a howling, desolate man on the sofa outside the room.

"Mmhm." Rina yawned. "If I hadn't experienced it, it'd just seem like awful coincidence. But I have a theory, and it might even make sense!" She stopped pacing and laid back on the floor. "But first, imagine what I suggested earlier. So many children and adults, chosen by these Digimon, chosen to make a better world, a good place. But it's not the whole world. In fact, it's a small amount of people. Enough that you wouldn't even need a large place to put them. Maybe half a million people, if you really stretched it. What happens to people that are different?"

Taiga's mouth dried up and Fergus gave a soothing beep. "They… they get hurt." He touched a bruise that wasn't there. "They die. They get… taken away."

Rina smiled bitterly. "You betcha. Aki and I, we're from a world where that happened. And your Earth is on a crash course to that same hellhole." She closed her eyes. "To be precise, we are from the isolated camp separated from Earth. To you all, we're nothing more than scum of the earth, just like the criminals they threw there.

"And, somehow, Kuga Kenzo knows about the Digimon, the Digital World, and us. And he intends to use us for something. Whatever that something is, I'm going to hope I don't have to stick around to find out." She sat up once more and looked at them. "I'm going to the Digital World and finding Aki and that son of his. Then I'm going home. I want you two to come with me."

…

Yakov Petrov awoke in darkness. Then light flooded his vision. He grimaced in pain and wet his lips. Looking about, he saw twinkling stars in constellations he didn't recognize. Three moons hung in varying crescent shapes overhead, and odd birds settled in signpost trees.

"Welcome."

Bolting upright, the man turned to see a little girl, purple hair floating as if to an invisible wind. "You're finally awake, Mr. Petrov! I'm Mi! I've been looking forward to talking to you in person." He let out a raspy cough. She groaned. "Ah, darn it. I was hoping you were ready to wake up for real. Do you know where you are, Mr. Petrov? You're exactly where you've been trying to be this whole time." She waved her hands. "Isn't that great?"

"Home..."

Mi blinked. "What?"

He managed to rub his eyes. "I need… to return home."

Mi frowned. "You don't have to do that. Your son will be here soon."

Yakov felt his head roll on his shoulders. It felt sickening, unnatural. "What… what do you know about my son?" What did this little girl know about a boy with his wife's temper, her vibrant laughter? What did she want with him?"

Mi stepped towards him. "I know _everything_ , Mr. Petrov. I know he's in a lot of danger especially. It's all your fault too. But we can fix that." She lifted her hand and a black cloud began to seep out from the shadows of the trees and sky. "First though!" Her purple eyes turned as blue as the sky outside of the room his wife had died in. "You're going to have to work for me. I bet you could use the break."

So exhausted, the man didn't even have a chance to scream.

…

In the shared community room of the V-Pet, Fergus watched V.V. stretch and Sashenka pace and try to find a comfortable spot. He could not reassure them, because V.V. didn't need reassurance, only a partner's craved touch, and Sashenka's deeply engraved fear and paranoia was so well-known to him by now, it rather went ignored, because nothing could help it. Fergus could only guess why at either of these, but every creature had their neuroses.

It didn't make the air any less stagnant.

The humans had fallen quiet now. If not quiet then frightened. Poor things. He doubted Taiga could hear it, but V.V.'s tense shoulders said his Rina was going to cry if this wasn't played correctly. And that would just be rude. So he sat back and breathed, slow and deep. Then, as if from a dream, he heard… something. A song. A familiar, faint song.

His sun flickered.

No, that wasn't possible. She was dead, or at least gone. There was nothing left to reach. And yet-

"I will return," he announced.

"Please do." Sashenka shook his blue head rapidly. "I don't think Taiga could bear it if you did not."

 _Don't I know it?_

...

The song was changing again now, changing with fear and weight and vomit. Mirei listened as File cried out to her, calling and whining and cajoling.

She touched the grass of Railroad Plains. "Ssh," she murmured. "I know. KI'm going to take care of it. I will. Just trust me. Help me."

It whined again. Mirei opened her computer by reflex.

It would be faster if she just asked for Digital children. Already bloodied, already Chosen. They could fight. But… She bit her lip. They were also cynical to a fault, and too broken to believe in more miracles than they had. Too frightened and beaten down. The two she had were bad enough.

Mirei let out a sigh and continued to program. Her cats were not back yet either.

"It's too quiet," she whispered to herself. Almost lonely. Then Mirei paused.

 _Have I… felt this way before?_

She must simply be tired, that was all.


	20. Chapter 19

_**Chapter Nineteen: An Opaque Glass**_

Kurosugi closed his brother's laptop a little too hard, gritting his teeth. "Nii-san has the worst system _ever."_

"Least he has a system," Tyrone muttered, picking at his teeth. Kuro bopped the V-Pet with two knuckles. "Seriously, lump, what are ya looking for anyhow?"

"Anything." Kurosugi shoved the laptop to the other side of the table. "Anything that'll make this-" He waved a hand. "Different."

In his worst moments, and though many people would argue he was nothing but worst moments if they forgot he was a human being, Kurosugi had figured being the only child of the Kuga family would be the best thing ever. Sure, there would be a lot of expectations and childish wants and he would have always been doing the things that he was suddenly doing now, but it had sounded pretty neat on paper. Living it however, was an entirely different story.

He also missed his brother. But now…

He had to wonder if his father had left the door ajar on purpose, so someone would hear, so someone would stop him. Or because he didn't care who would hear, because nobody would. His brother being illegitimate was the worst kept GIGO secret in the world to anybody who knew his name and connected the dots. Who his mother was was the only thing nobody knew, and Yuuya hadn't talked. Now they were both gone. Making sure they stayed gone was a nice way to wrap up a rotten loose end.

Maybe his dad should go full bastard and kill him too, start over with a wife that _wasn't_ a prudish bitch that wouldn't put out. Which was the rumor. He didn't see his mom enough to tell if it was the truth or not. IT was enough truth for his dad to cheat and be dumb about it, at least.

Kurosugi rubbed his forehead. If only he'd gotten farther in that tournament, been able to win, he could have… "Ty, you got any idea what happened back there?"

"X-Antibody carrier decided to break reality." Tyrone shrugged. "It's like I keep telling ya lump, our world's real. And it's in piss poor shape with the gods the way they are. Two are completely gone and the third… well, we all kinda wrecked the third actual god. I mean there's this rumor about some destroying nutsoid god, but again, he's rumored to be _nuts."_ He shrugged, practicing swings. "Rumors though, that the third one is trying to move around again. Wouldn't trust it."

"Don't Black have the X thing?"

Tyrone spat. "Yeah, still don't know _how_. X-Digimon went dead too. Cept like four, apparently."

Oh right, that was a sore spot to his grumpy idiot. Kurosugi had never actually given a shit until now. Maybe he'd have been better off if he had. "What is it?"

Tyrone sat down on the floor of his apartment thing. He could have picked the bed, but the asshole didn't for whatever reason. Masochist. "Basically, a long time ago, one of the big gods wanted us Digimon deleted to reboot the universe. It decided to give everyone a virus. People went against that, there was a big rebellion, so ya know. Shit happened, it didn't go well. As a result, Yggdrasil nearly destroyed everything. Except its Knights were like, hell no."

"Whoa, whoa." Kurosugi forced his computer open to a document. "Slow down, start from the beginning. What the hell are you even talking about?"

Tyrone squinted at him. "Kuro, why do you even want to _know?"_

"Because I don't know shit." Kuro mussed up his hair. "You're saying my brother fell in there, you're saying that pink bitch fell in your world and I don't know shit about it and for some reason my dad thinks he can kill Nii-san in there and no one will care. I need to know _something._ And you're all I've got. So, spill. It might help."

Tyrone made a face, looking at the way the bags slumped under Kurosugi's eyes, at the naked desperation there. Then he groaned. "All right, but I'm no expert. Get some snacks, and me some meat. This is gonna take a while."

…

Fergus didn't feel like he was in much of a hurry, but he was. He knew he was. He couldn't run, but he flew at a pace that only pretended to be leisurely. The song was still there, sad and pained. He couldn't help. Not really. Gods weren't meant to interfere so directly in these matters. Well, meant to was irrelevant in so many cases, as the gods often did. The Yggdrasil name had a tendency to-

He shut down those thoughts. No. She was certainly gone too. Both his parents had to be gone. And yet someone was singing to the Digital World, someone who he had seen sign her own death warrant. Surely, surely that.

Yet she bore miracles. It was entirely possible.

He passed an old rickety apartment and almost paid it no mind. Then the scent reached his ears, raspberries and honeysuckle. Distinct, hers, leading out and out.

Fergus rushed. He wasn't even going to deny it now. He reached the first hill in the time it would take to give a hello and ask about the weather. She was sitting on the next one, humming and toying with the grass. Purple hair reaching to her throat, dark skin that they were completely alike with, eyes through thick, angular lenses that were so blank and unlike herself-

Fergus stopped. He stared, openly. She was alive. She was here, right now. She was alive.

"Sister?" he croaked. Either his voice was too quiet for her to hear, which he doubted, or she was lost to the song. She was always attuned to one song or another. It had been so infuriating. Beautiful, but infuriating. Now? Now it made his heart swell. "Sister?" he repeated, louder this time.

Her head snapped up, one shade to another, she had no pupils, oh what had happened to you, sister? Her eyes narrowed in confusion, then widened once more.

"Who are you?" she uttered softly. The Digital World's song was beginning to change, warming and chirruping, full of relief. He'd never been able to respond to it, he had never been taught. But Mirei had never been either and that was irrelevant. That was irrelevant compared to her simple, seemingly innocuous question.

"I beg your pardon?" He leaned to look down at her. His sun barely managed to avoid smoking the grass. He knelt closer, wanting to cup her face but resisting due to how she looked at him, baffled despite the blank frown on her face. "Mirei, sister, surely you jest."

"You're familiar," she replied at once, fingers on her strange laptop. "Your smell is familiar. But I do not remember. I'm sorry."

Fergus swallowed. "I… I see. I supposed that's a small price to pay compared to you not returning at all."

That didn't make this any more okay, or the pain leave his chest. This was his baby sister, his sister who had put flower crowns in his hair and smiled with gaps in her mouth. That little girl was long gone, it seemed. In her place was a strange woman, a Talosian woman. She was a dragon, a true dragon now. He wanted to cry, but he couldn't do it. He couldn't show tears to who was now a stranger to him.

Her fingers reached out and touched his hand. "I want to remember," she said. Her empty eyes said just enough to him that it didn't stop hurting, but it slowed like trickling blood. "But I can't. Not like this. There's so much to do."

"What do you need to do?" He asked instead of trying to force her because you couldn't force people to do anything. "Can I help you?"

Mirei's lips twitched into a smile. "I think you're the only one who can."

In all of these centuries, Fergus had always considered breaking every pacifistic vow he had for that smile. He was starting to consider doing so again.


	21. Chapter 20

**Chapter Twenty: Without a Veil**

Taiga woke up at three in the morning and his V-Pet was still blank. He sighed as quietly as possible, in order to avoid waking a lightly snoring Niko on the other side of his room. He rolled over and stared up at the ceiling. As he did, he saw a thin shadow moving back into the now cramped bedroom. Honestly, it hadn't been this way when he was ten. Growth spurts, they were a mess.

Rina kept slipping along the wall until she made it back to her own small futon, away from the two of them. Taiga had watched her do it, watched her roll on her side and go quiet and small. _Why did she come, if she was going to do that?_

 _Because she wanted to come._

Taiga rolled on his side, debated getting up, going between Niko and Rina like he used to do when they were small. He could imagine the warmth right now. He gripped his lukewarm V-Pet, feeling that ever-present, sometimes silent ache in his chest. Then Niko's snoring grew a bit more and the sound galled Taiga forward. HE clumsily crawled out of bed, heavy comforter in hand. Normally it would take two hands, but the weight of the fabric felt like nothing to his hands these days. He threw it over him, over them, and rested under it. His fingers reached on her pajama shirt and tugged. Rina shifted and rolled over.

"What?" Despite her voice being a whisper, it clanged loud and clear in his ears.

Taiga blinked. He hadn't been thinking of anything except that he was lonely on his bed. Her red eyes looked at him with clear concern, however, and it sent a different feeling into his stomach: discomfort. He wanted to shake his head, say it was nothing. But he couldn't get the words to come out.

"You don't have to go," he finally blurted out softly. "I… it's… you can stay here, with us! It's not like… this doesn't change anything."

Rina looked at him for a while, then she laughed. No, it was a sob. It was a sob and he always did this why did he screw up this much?

"I need to," she finally said. "I need her, you don't understand, I can't leave her like that."

"Then you can just come back," he said, trying to sound reasonable and logical like she always did.

Rina shifted, drawing up her legs and shaking her head. "I hate it here. I hate it here, all the time." She squeezed her eyes shut and when she opened them up again they were glowing. "Everything smells like petrol and chemicals and it's always cold. All people talk about is breaking other people here. I hate it. You guys are the only things worth staying for."

"Then we'll go with you."

Rina shook her head no. "You can't!" Her voice was loud enough that Taiga almost didn't notice Niko's sudden silence. "Aki and I _kill Digimon,_ Taiga. We _kill people._ We're soldiers, gang brats. We have… we made a contract. If you come with they'll kill you both." She waved her hands a little in agitation. "They don't have a choice. Everything's… fragile and hurting and you'll be two more mouths to feed in that hellhole."

"Rina, I don't exactly live next to Niko because he's a born socialite." Taiga could feel his eyes watering and tried to clamp down on it but it was hard because everything in her was shaking and that wasn't normal. "His dad paid for my everything. I've done that before. I… as long as it's with you guys, I can do it again. I-" Taiga swallowed. "I know I can."

Rina opened her mouth but no sound came out but more odd whimpers. Something lashed against fab- the tail. God. God god god, everything is so screwed up.

Niko shifted, clambering over Taiga and hugging Rina to his chest. "Stop making my girlfriend cry, bro," he grumbled, voice slurring with sleep.

Taiga made a face in the dark, secretly swelling with relief. Okay, Niko could probably handle this. He knew how to handle Rina in a different way. "Your girlfriend," he managed to say, grasping Rina's sweaty palm. "My friend bro."

"Yeah, well, there's a reason you're not the reassuring one here."

Rina made a wet noise. Niko exhaled a little and Taiga took that opportunity to pull the comforter over them.

For a while, Taiga was content listening to Rina's breathing soften and her quiet crying fade. He wished he knew what words to say, what could prove they belonged together, as friends or whatever. But nothing seemed strong enough, good enough. None of it was real. Because all of it, all of it was temporary.

Then, clear as day, he heard Niko say, "Let them try. I'll gut them myself."

Taiga hoped he was lying and made himself not look to his silent V-Pet for answers.

…

Fergus, being ever observant, felt those eyes. Yet he couldn't go. He didn't want to. Mirei was leaned on his shoulder, deeply asleep and peaceful. For all the darkness in her skin and the vivid colors she wore, it was all too easy to imagine her fading away, disappearing off into the sky, into nothing at all.

How close it had been, before. How close he had been to losing everything. Because of her, because of a meddling old woman who had pretended at parenthood. And now, now to the metaphorical monsters under the bed, to people who failed their trials, to so many awful, awful things.

"How could everything end up like this?"

His sister's face scrunched in her sleep and Fergus paused, waiting for her to relax. She never used to be this easy to wake. She would sleep like the dead and damned most of the time. But not now. Not after living purely n the wilds, in the feral land where children and digimon broke alike, not after losing her home and family. Not with no memories of being loved.

He would help her remember. That was what brothers did, no?

" _So you'll shepherd her too, Fergie?"_ The little dragon's voice melted from the air, sneering and pitiful. " _That doesn't really work. I've tried."_

Fergus watched Mirei sleep on and hesitated. Was Vitium not a threat to her?

" _She'll never think of me as an enemy, as someone to fear. But let's talk about you, Fergie."_

Mi settled on the grass, but not as a little girl. All he could see now was a small, black dragon, scarred by great claws, blue eyes haunting and staring straight forward.

"You're deceiving my sight on purpose."

She waved her tail. _"Irrelevant. You've always been around her less than I have. You think if you're just kind and out of the way, you'll be rewarded with results, if you're just passive and lame-hearted, things will change. Papa made that same I guess it's better than being your teacher."_

She didn't cackle like a villain, that little dragon. She just spoke, knowing and miserable and frightened. She was also unfortunately easy to jump at being honest and cruel. "My mentor has long since lost interest in me."

" _Lonely, isn't it?"_ When he didn't respond, she snorted. _"You're such a coward. You could stop me, you know. If you tried. If you fought. But you won't. You're a god. You're too good for a darkling like me. You're too busy with your own little student. Let me know how that goes when he's turned on you."_

Fergus could think of words, counters, but rage was boiling in his gut, so perhaps that was what made him reply, so caustic: "And you could end this and change your destiny, if you had your own courage."

She did laugh now. _"I thought you wanted our baby sister to_ survive _this time. After all, we've only got one shot left."_


	22. Chapter 21

**Chapter Twenty-One: What's the Key?**

"Only one shot, you say?"

Mi regarded him with a swishing tail. _"Yep. Just one. I'm sure of it. I've been looking, and looking, and our only ace in the hole is sleeping right there."_

"There's no 'our' here, Mi." Fergus made himself speak the words, even though he wanted to say the opposite. Even though his free arm ached with the idea of pulling her close and holding her until she stopped talking, until she gave up and ended this foolish plan, he resisted. She would not stop. It was almost like asking a river to stop flowing in the direction it went. "You have chosen your path. And I am watching over mine. My hope."

" _Good choice of words."_ A lashing tail. _"You can't keep doing this, dear brother."_ Her blue eyes winked closed one after the other. _"I can't let you keep standing by. Not even if it's the right thing to do."_

Now, Mirei stirred. Her eyes opened slowly, closing again as if desperate to reclaim the peace he simply could not give her. Mi made a sound of displeasure.

" _Well, I tried._ " She turned and hopped away, changing within seconds to the form of a small girl, a girl uncanny to this one. But when she looked back and smiled, the two of them were nothing alike.

The eyes were the same. Even blue, they were the exact same. And that made Fergus' heart tremble.

But he ignored it. There was nothing he could do for little Mi. Not anymore. She was too broken by the universe. She was quite beyond his ability to save now.

Instead he looked down at Mirei, who was still moving painfully slowly. How long had it been since she'd slept uninterrupted and well?

He didn't ask. "Are you all right?" Fergus said instead, thinking of Taiga. Thinking of his poor, worried boy. He needed to go to him, but…

She nodded, putting one hand to her head. "They're still not back… any of them." She pushed herself up from the grass. The plains hummed to her, and vibrating beneath his sun. They don't catch fire.

"Your Digimon?"

Mirei nodded. "And another and another fell. Something is already wrong." She made a strange noise in her throat. "And I haven't even done much yet." She moved to the laptop at her side and opened it. "At the very least, I need… to reach the rest. The three of them. They can lay the foundation." She typed. "They can help me save her."

"She doesn't want saving, sister."

Mirei did smile now, and it was still a heartbreak. "Nobody wants to be saved, but everyone needs it once, at least."

She finished within moments. "Will you wait for them here? I need to investigate further."

Fergus didn't hesitate to nod. It wasn't that they wouldn't come. But it was how soon they would arrive. He couldn't express the importance of leaving that world. That would be interfering too highly.

She nodded herself and made to leave. He raised his hand to stop her. The question he asked himself, inverted.

"Why are you interfering so? Surely, they would come if they were meant to come."

Mirei held her computer close to her chest. "I can't wait for 'meant to bes' to happen. Surely, as a Digimon, you understand this?"

He did not. But Fergus did not say so. He was more than a Digimon, much like she was more than an unusual human.

Mirei left him to his thoughts and Fergus watched the sky and waited more.

…

"I wasn't kidding."

Taiga decided to try very hard to busy himself with reorganizing his apartment instead of looking at Niko, who was very calmly putting away food and books like he hadn't suggested he would murder people for the sake of being with a single person. Rina was alond in Mr. Petrov's office. She had had red splotches on her face and had locked the door on herself when they had tried to come in. Resolutely, Taiga had decided to also not want to know.

He eventually gave up on the first decision. It was the only thing that he could think of to do, to get rid of this ugly, permeating silence. "I know you weren't." He grimaced and heaved up a cushion. "I just don't understand why. I don't even think you can. Bro, you are literally the worst in gym. I beat you."

"Then I'll practice." Nikos voice took on an irritated cant. "I'll train. I'll do something. I just..." He shrugged. "She had eyes like pops did before we came to Japan. When matus- When Mom was alive. Her voice sounded like that." He went quiet for a moment and then slammed down the next box a little too hard. "Sorry man, but if where she lives is that bad, and she wants to go back there, then I'm going with."

Taiga nodded slowly. "I… I guess." He sighed. "I just don't have anything like that except Fergus."

All of his friends really were going to leave him. So much for that enragement child and her fantastical story.

Niko bopped him on the head with a newspaper. "You're coming with. Who else is going to kick us out at two in the morning? We need you too."

"For what?" Taiga folded more clothes and tried, unsuccessfully, to ignore the lump in his throat. "I'm not strong either. I barely can look after myself. I can't get a job. Classes are a joke. I'm lucky I'm not a vegetarian."

"None of that is even correlating, man." Niko sat back. "You're the guy with super Buddha who is damn near invincible. You -and Rina- can hear your Digimon from this side. That's gotta mean something."

"Like what? I'm a weirdo?" Taiga tried hard not to roll his eyes. "We've known that for years."

"Bears reminding." Niko made to shove the sofa. Taiga went to help and it moved, almost too easily. HE stared at his hands as Niko continued like nothing had happened at all. "Might mean you're good at raising Digimon. Might mean you've got… I dunno, something special. But even if you didn't, you're my brother in everywhere it matters." He gave Taiga an elbow to the ribs. "I'm not like Dad. I'm not leaving you behind."

Taiga felt his face flame. He had to look away for a moment or two to regain himself. Eventually, he mumbled a "Thanks."

Nikolai, thankfully, understood and was also suitably embarrassed. "Duh."

They were quiet for a while and soon there were box piles dangerously close to Taiga's nose. Rina had not exited the office even once.

"You think she's asleep in there?"

Niko grunted. "I doubt it. She always complained the carpet felt like sandpaper."

"And why would she complain about that- ow." Niko thumped him right on the arm. "You gotta work on the hitting," Taiga muttered. "You're a wet noodle, not a fierce enemy."

Niko snorted. "Means I gotta hit harder." They opened the door to see Rina sitting in Yakov's chair, heavy tome in her lap. She looked up at them, soft red eyes almost starry with delight.

"Niko, your dad's a genius." She blurted. Then she paused and looked down. "I mean, in concept. His mathematics are off by a lot. But like." Rina hopped from the chair. "The fact that he knows _this much_ explains a lot of the problem."

"Knows what?" Niko leaned over to look at it and his eyes swam. "Nice to hear my dad's a sham dad but a great scientist. Kinda knew that already."

Taiga winced, but Rina only swatted his arm. "No, see, this is different. See, he knew the Digimon were cognizant, but that's about it. She pointed with the cap of a pen. "There's like, nothing here about the world being sentient, or about the pathways and anywhere between them. I mean, yeah, there's some data, but most of it is about what goes wrong."

"What's the big deal about that?" Taiga picked up a book and had to run to a window coughing out dust.

Rina's eyebrows scrunched. "Well, Earth's alive, right?" She waited for both of them to nod. "So like, anything with life is alive. You have to think differently when interacting with living organisms. Mechanical ones have a specific purpose and they need to evolve past them for anything remotely like organic creatures. It's the same for programs. Programs made for a specific purpose perform their purpose and that's it, but-"

"Newspaper clipping version, Rina," Niko ordered.

Rina huffed at him. "I'm trying."

"You're really not," Taiga managed to say.

Rina puffed out her cheeks and Taiga felt his heart swell a little. That was the most Rina look to exist on her face in days. "Whatever!" She put the book down and picked up her V-Pet. "Basically, what he's talking about is a sentient artificial intelligence that's meant to perform a purpose."

Niko blinked and then he looked at his father's computer. "But if it's sentient, then..."

Rina nodded. "Yep yep! Like the Digimon. It's able to think and feel. It's not just there to fulfill a process. And GIGO treats people and things like they are there to fulfill a role. "So he made a Digimon, basically. And broke it. Probably by accident."

"But for what?"

Rina shrugged. "I dunno his reasons but its' a conglomerate that controls the internet, it's probably something to support their ambitions. The Digital World will know more than us."

"But we still have no idea how to get there!" Taiga only vaguely understood what Rina was talking about, but even that bare bones understanding made a sick horror rise in his gut. Because he thought he knew exactly who was being talked about.

"I think Mister Petrov might." Rina surveyed the room where she'd thrown a fair few papers and books. "Do you know his password, Niko?"

Niko hesitated, fingers shaking. Then he went over and typed in a few syllables.

"My mother's name." Then he went to pick up a book.

Rina was suitably quiet and Taiga looked away. Then his eyes caught a glimpse of the computer. "Uhm… is that a normal start up screen?"

Niko made himself look up at it, at the single text box and the words written atop it. "No. I know it's not." His phone vibrated and Niko looked at it. His eyes went wide.

His father's email address. No subject. He clicked it open.

His cell phone _shrieked,_ wild snarls and howling screams coming from its tiny speaker, until a ragged voice whispered,

"Don't answer it."

His phone went dead.

Niko looked at the other two. They were both staring at his phone like it was going to explode. "Uhm."

"...Am I the only one who heard that other part?" Taiga asked him.

"You mean the screaming?" Niko said dryly. "Yeah I'm not gonna forget that anytime soon."

"That wasn't screaming." Rina turned to another heavy tome. "That was a cry for help."


	23. Chapter 22

**Chapter Twenty-Two: Leftover Ties**

Silence reigned.

They don't talk. They can't. The three of them are absorbed in the many, many books and notes. It was the messiest that Niko had ever seen his father's office in years, since he was small and learning to type. He remember it very well but at the time-

 _Almost Nikolai. Not quite, yes- there, there. Perfect. One finger at a time, no- Gently. It's not a weapon._

He could remember his father's low but still somehow raucous laughter. He could see his own face, a little less gaunt than the months before, than the years of being in that deadly world of cold.

Taiga's hand shook him silently. Niko looked up to see Rina, muttering and scribbling on random papers equation after equation. Then she stopped mid page turn and just looked at the page. Then Rina looked up at them and pulled something out.

A photograph. She moved from the chair and handed it to the two of them. Then, like a ghost, she left the room. Taiga peered at the fading image of a brown haired woman and a tiny blond boy, and leaned silently against Niko. The tears blurred his vision for an instant, but then he stiffened up.

In one corner of the photo, there was a little blue blur with red fabric almost indistinguishable from the rest of the coats in the background. But it was there. Taiga was positive about that.

…

Rina laid on the couch, surrounded by boxes. The sobs Niko made were loud and long. Her chest twinged. She pressed her hand to it, puzzled. Whenever Akiho cried in her sleep, whenever she did, whenever there were sounds of hunger and fear by her sensitive ears, her body reacted. Sympathy, maybe? Regardless, she couldn't go there. She had no understanding of Niko's raw pain right now. Taiga would. They had been friends for so long. It would be better for her to be out here, thinking of the puzzle's solution. She was useless for the emotional comfort Niko needed, practically speaking.

Rina sighed and held out the notebook overhead.

"Just go back in," V.V. told her, buzzing on the sofa cushion.

"I'll look like a jerk," she replied, turning a page of looseleaf carefully with one fingertip.

She heard him snort. "One, you already do, and two, so what? They probably think you don't care or something."

Rina made a face. "I didn't even know her. I never got to. I..." She looked up at the ceiling. "Think she would have been nice? Maybe liked me like Aki's mom does?"

V.V. exhaled quietly. "I think so. She would have seen right through your crap though."

Rina let out a weak laugh. "Probably." She turned a page. "I wonder how sad I would be to lose Miss Hannah." She turned another page, free hand. "I think I'd cry. Even thinking of losing these guys, it hurts so much." She rolled on her side. "Having to live with them being lost, and you can't do anything to change it, it's..." she closed her eyes. "Sounds hard." Her fingers curled into the closest cushion as the notebook landed on a box. "He might do that to Aki huh? That reaper. He might take Aki away forever." Her eyes stared out and then she sat up.

"What is it?" V.V. didn't mind letting Rina brood out loud. At least then she was talking.

"The processes," she replied. "Process of bringing a Digimon to a human area-"

"Impossible," V.V said quickly. "Or, mostly. Otherwise we'd be servants by now."

Rina clicked her tongue, oblivious to the door of the office opening behind them. "Only somewhat. They were studying to create a way to do it. Yakov-san was studying. And now, when it's probably close to completion, he's gone. It was probably during testing." She glared at her V-Pet half-heartedly. "Distracting. Don't."

"Sorry." V.V.'s voice didn't sound sorry but Rina ignored it. "What is it then?"

"Real world process," she said. "What's it called? The real world process."

The toy made a sound like it was going to throw something. "Uh… wait. Realizing! IT's realizing!"

Rina swung her legs."Right. Sensible. Realizing is to be made aware of."

"Rina?" Taiga's voice went unheard, or at least ignored.

"Realizing." She repeated, putting her hand to her head. "Real. Real world. Add to it Digital. They need to go to the Digital World so the way for humans to go to the Digital World is-" She leaped over the couch, boxes and all and barreled into Niko. Her arms wrapped around him tight and she beamed at him, then Taiga.

"I got it!" Her cord tail wagged steadily as he blinked. His puffy eyes looked almost heartbroken. "We can go to your dad now! Pack your things!"

Taiga winced at Niko's face grew stormy. "I don't _want_ to see that idiot. He left. The hell does he care about that?!"

Rina tilted her head a little. "You looked at that photo and you don't know?!"

Niko scowled, deep set and raw too. "I don't _care_ , Rina. He doesn't give a shit so why the hell should I?" He ignored the picture that was still in his fingers. "He cared about mom. He didn't give a damn about me. That hasn't changed in years. It can't."

Rina still just kept looking at him. Then she pulled away. Setting herself back onto the floor. "All right." She sighed. "Then I'll go on ahead."

"What?" Niko went to grab her arm. "Hell no, we're coming with."

She pulled her arm away with surprising force and her red eyes looked brighter than ever. Taiga shied back a little, curling into himself slightly as she replied. "So you can half-ass your way across an island of things that can eat people? Piss off." She went to Yakov Petrov's computer and started to type. "At least Taiga's just scared of what's out there. You're just scared of being wrong."

The silence after she pressed the Enter key was physically deafening. Then the monitor lit up so bright it eclipsed the room.

When the two boys could see again, Rina was gone, and everything she had carried with her.

Well, almost everything. Niko held her V-Pet clutched around his thumb.

…

Inside GIGO's main building, Kuga Kenzo watched power circuits begin to lose their brilliant blue light and return to sleep once more, leaving only one new occupant in its wake. He let out a small, pleased sigh, the quirk of his mouth the extent of his expression of delight. He read the single new notification and nodded.

"So much to do, to many resistances to snuff out, and so. Little. Time." He stepped forward, closer to the center of the room. He was alone, so he didn't have to put up a pretense of fear. "Hello, Vitium," he said, looking down at a writhing, small, black dragon. "You've been working so hard to fight, haven't you? It must really hurt. If you just stopped and behaved, you'd be such a good little pet."

The creature hissed and gnashed its teeth, but could not lunge.

He knelt a little. "Oh, what? Where was that nasty resistance you put up before? Did you use up all your power getting rid of my precious little rook? Is he _dead yet?_ " For a couple of moments, his shadow grew and grew, eclipsing the few sparkling lights of the machines until it may not have been the shadow of a man at all.

He got a snarl in response and earned a snickering laugh.

"Such a good pawn," Kenzo said without a hint of laughter. "You always come when I call. You hate it so much. It's too bad you hid Yakov. He was becoming very useful." Vitium lashed out its tail in wild strikes, smacking against nothing in particular.

The door creaked open behind him without knocking. Kenzo turned and almost smiled. "There you are, Kurosugi. You're late. Your brother was always early."

Kurosugi said nothing, his usual bored face replaced with carefully created blankness. Then, seemingly with a great, heaving effort, he opened his mouth. "Dad… what didja want to talk about?"

Vitium snarled at him and Kurosugi almost took a step back, lanky legs feeling horribly ready to melt.

Kenzo waved his hand. "Ignore that, it can't harm you." Now he did smile. "I just wanted to have a father and son chat."

"About what."

 _Oh, damn. I forgot I raised him to be intelligent._ "I have a job for you. And in order to do so, I decided now was a good time to tell you about your dear older brother, and just what I did to him in this room." He leaned back a little to see the taller male's face.

"You see, Kurosugi, your brother is a _nekomata,_ and it's very necessary that he die as soon as possible."

Mi, wriggling helplessly on the floor, let out a burst of flame.


	24. Interlude 1B

**Interlude 1B: A Small Set of Fangs**

Fergus stirred from his sleep and opened his eyes to a somewhat familiar door. Broken, and tattered. Sunlight, or something like it, filtered in through the slits of the next room. There was no crying this time, only a low rumble of chatter from person to person. There were no plinks of cutlery and plates, but soft sounds of plastic to foam.

"Your cousins will be here in a couple of hours," he heard. Someone responded in a way he couldn't make out. "Make sure to clean up the back room for tonight."

"Yep!" Rindou Akiho's voice, softly higher, infinitely brighter than it had been the last time he had heard it nearly a week ago. "I'm almost ready."

There was a strange, hollow silence. "Very good then." The man's voice was strained, heavy. Then it changed in tense. "Suzu? You're not eating. Are you still not feeling well?"

"Yeah..."

"Don't worry, papa." Akiho's voice grew a little louder as she moved closer to the door. "I'll put her back to bed. She's probably nervous too."

There was no audible response. Fergus waited. He was patient. He would not spook this poor family even further. Their voices were too hushed as it is. So instead, he meditated. Waiting for Taiga would be a task in and of itself.

He was broken from his musings by the sliding of the door. A single pink eye stared at him through the mop of somewhat clean pink hair. It took him a moment to wrack his brain and remember, so many important things had happened.

"Hello, little Susu," he finally said. His hand reached out for her and she jumped back. He paused. "Do you not remember me?"

Susu's mouth opened and closed, making vividly clear the lack of stitches. She finally jerked her head like a nod, face still pale.

Socks touched the ground and thin arms looped over the little girl's head. Akiho stared at him, eyes a glimmering red. "You came back."

"Somehow, I did. Yes." He looked around the small room, which seemed mostly unchanged. "Is everything well?"

Akiho shrugged, picking up little Subaru. The child's hair fell over her eye socket. "I'm getting married tonight."

Fergus paused. Normally, this would merely confuse a Digimon. The idea of marriage was rare in most of the Digital World. Digimon mated, rarely made vows of marriage. In the more cutthroat areas, that was simply ridiculous due to high death toll. For the humans, it was impractical, but not uncommon. The more civilized the area was, the less abnormal it became. Child marriages on the other hand, were immensely frowned upon, in theory. Betrothals were not, somehow, as mixed species had to preserve the blood, but the idea of a young child like this being tied to someone before they really understood the consequences, especially if they were older than the child themselves…

Fergus had a mind to turn this young girl's parents over his knee just at that implication.

"They're my age," Akiho continued, either oblivious or indifferent to the expression on Fergus' face in the gloom of the dark room. "We've fought before."

"And that makes it right, child?" His voice is cautiously puzzled, watching Akiho adjust Subaru to be sitting in her lap. She began combing the pink mass, looking mildly concerned at the state of it. "You will be given off to someone who has tried to kill you."

"I tried to kill them too." Akiho shrugged, gaunt chin turned down in careful examination. She went back to combing the ends, allowing Fergus to see the scissors placed at her side. "I want to. And, if I don't, then this place will continue to be full of dead people. People could continue to hurt my family and friends. I can't let that happen. It's my duty to protect them."

"At the cost of yourself?"

Akiho blinked at him, clearly puzzled at his vehemence. She tilted her head as she looked at him. Then she looked down at the sound of the tiny girl's small sniffles. "Aren't you doing that too?"

Fergus stiffened. "And what makes you think so?"

Akiho reached for a glass of water and poured it on the little girl's head. Subaru squirmed but didn't move away. "Your eyes are always looking somewhere else," she said. "It feels like you're not looking at me at all."

Fergus stiffened. That Titamon's voice, full of contempt, rose in his mind. But this was different. It was the matter of fact views of a small child.

"Whatever you're looking at, it must be important." She sounded too old. "You must be thinking about someone you care about a lot."

"...Yes. I am." Many people. So many people. So many loved ones who he could do nothing for except watch over.

"Mm." Susu let out a sudden happy sound as Akiho smoothed her hair down. "Rina looks at me like that."

"Rina?"

Akiho nodded. She was starting to smile. "She doesn't know how to smile much yet. I've been teaching her. She can't bleed. She gets headaches a lot. She likes eating soup when it's boiling and hates red peppers. Her green hair crimps up like seaweed when it's wet for too long. But she knew how to cry when I was in the hospital." She looked up at Fergus with a knowing, but still pretty smile. "I'm happy I get to be with her!"

… Oh dear. This was… difficult. Was Rina breaking the marriage contract because they were on Earth? Were there clauses he did not know?

"My sister used to smile like you," he said out loud. "When she spoke of the people she loved, she would smile like that and claim she would marry them." He laughed. "I always wondered if it was because she wanted to, or because they were insistent."

"Why didn't you ask?"

Fergus sighed. "I was often away, I have often been away. Training, learning, growing. And by the time I can now it's… well, it is a bit too late."

"But you're with her now." Akiho murmured to Susu, who yawned. She looked much more relaxed this way. "Right? So why can't you?"

Fergus sighed. "It's complicated, child."

Akiho sighed, mimicking him. "It's always complicated, isn't it?"

"Afraid so."

He did not want to leave this child. For all her calm, her acceptance, her genuine smiles, there was a weight on those tiny shoulders that she refused to acknowledge. Her legs trembled, and it wasn't because of the scars lining down her entire right side, or the slowness of one eye. She was simply pretending she was brave.

Then again, that was the only way to be brave in the end.

…

He woke hours later, still waiting. He woke to the sound of a great tearing in the sky. Without thinking, he lifted his hands, hoping.

He caught Rina in both hands and his veiled eyes met blazing red. The light in them immediately faded and she smiled at him.

"Thanks!" she said and hopped off. "The other two will get here eventually. Dunno how."

Fergus frowned. "Why didn't you take them along?"

Rina huffed. "Because Niko's an idiot and..." She looked at her hands. "I'm gonna do some bad things. I-" She trembled a little. "Guess I'm not ready for 'em to see."

Fergus reached out to touch her shoulder. "You and your wife were too young, weren't you?"

Rina didn't look as she retied her boots. "Always are."

Fergus couldn't deny that.


	25. Prologue

_Warning for depression and murder_

* * *

Arc Two: Nightwish

 **Prologue: The Type of Parent**

The Digital World was not a kind, gentle place.

Even though wishes loved to come true here, even though imagination turned ideas into action, this was not restricted to the pure and innocent. It could not be, for even the foulest of people had wishes they wanted to see come true.

In a creaking, sleeping castle at the core of File Island, a man knew this very well.

Said man clung to each crumbling pillar like they were his life, moving across stone and tile in a slow shuffle. He had to reach them. He had to meet them. She, his wife, was gone. But his legacy remained. They had to. There was no way they could not, even with these many passing millennia. No parent wanted their child to die before them, so perhaps he merely was dealing with wishful thinking.

It wouldn't surprise him.

He stopped, leaning against a handhold. The castle made a low, groaning sound. The man almost smiled.

Almost. Rekushin hadn't had much reason to smile in a long time. His reasons had drifted far, far away. That couldn't be helped, however. He pressed onward, trying to ignore the gravel sound of wings gently flapping in the cramped hallways. Well, cramped for them. It didn't exactly work to fly in a castle hall, especially that of a dozing and sulking castle that missed its master.

Well, its current master.

Rekushin reached one of the many expansive gardens where an ancient, gnarled tree stood vigil. The roots seemed to part for him, branches rustling leaves in greeting. He nodded his head, dark purple hair once again too loose and messy, lost in his lack of desire to comb. His up until recent lack of desire to do anything was in the rumbling of his stomach, the heaviness of his limbs. Even now, settling beneath the soothing leaves, he nearly found it too much effort to sit down.

A branch unfurled, stroking his shoulder in greeting. His mouth twitched.

"Good afternoon, Lillian," he managed, nearly regretting the words as they sprang free. He knew the tree – rather, the woman that made up its weave, would have let him stay with no conversation if he had chosen to ignore her. Many other things occupied her attention as one of the oldest conscious Ghost Trees, keepers of Yggdrasil's will. God he may or may not be, he was only one of many.

" _Good afternoon, lord of frost."_ Her response was slow and measured, and he loathed to hear it. She was supposed to be such a young woman, full of life and radiance. What had taken that from her? What had caused her to distance herself from him? He racked his brain, searched for the holes, and still, nothing came to mind. _"Your wounds troubling you?"_

"Much less, thanks to you and Solomon." Rekushin exhaled low. "Physically at any rate."

" _Humans are not meant to be isolated."_

"No," he agreed. "We are a social creature, inhumanity or otherwise." If he could have gone, he would have, rather than stay alone with servants and puppets and trees, all creatures bound to the place they served. They were such good company, but there was only so much they could say or do before the beyond called. "Any news from beyond the walls?"

" _I am still sifting through it."_

Rekushin wanted to shake her, but feared the loss of the trunk and the spirit within it. So instead he closed his eyes and waited, breathing in the aroma of the flowers.

Eventually a leaf fell onto his nose.

He let out a snort. What a trickster she was. "Yes?" He didn't open his eyes.

" _They live."_

The first word was too emphatic, too heavy to mean a meaningless everyone. Rekushin knew that for certain. So he knew the they. There was no saving one. Two, he knew, were quite possibly lost to the wilds in the case of the former. He couldn't say where his old friend had gone, but knowing him, he was caught up in something far outside of his control. There was likely nothing that could be done for him.

That left only two more. His oldest son. His youngest daughter.

 _They live._

An urge, an unquenchable thirst of a feeling, threatened to make him weep. Rekushin bore it.

"Really?" he said, in a whisper though it didn't matter. "Are you sure?"

Another fallen leaf. Of course she was.

"Where?"

Thud thud went his heart. Thud thud. How long had it been? His hands itched, twitched, needed to do, needed to be able to hold-

" _I'm so sorry, darling."_

Rekushin stopped. His hands fell to the ground.

" _Such a dramatic."_ Only a tree would chide a god. He had to chuckle at that. _"They don't need you now anyway. Someone else requires your assistance."_

"Oh?" He tried not to sound too acidic, but it was difficult. Feeling emotions heavily again was just too much, especially now.

" _Your Hector is dead."_

It took a moment to have an impact, because the Royal Knights didn't respond to their names over half the time that Rekushin to his own chagrin actually nearly forgot them. But then he remembered fading red scales, a serenity that was indispensable on those too long days. He remembered great soaring wings that dwarfed the castle.

When it came to him, it was like the whimper of a thunderclap. Those controlled tears fell, and his stomach threatened to roll over in a newfound grave, but he didn't scream. His friend would have told him to scream, to throw things and howl. Well, not exactly, but at least one of them would.

"...I see." His Adam's apple throbbed.

" _He found an heir before he passed."_ Lillian continued, not oblivious to his pain, of course not. _"Alphamon is in pursuit."_

"Alphamon?" The last time an Alphamon had taken up arms had been far before the avalanche. "Why ever would that be the case? With Norn captured-" Dead or broken. His wife was nothing more than a shell that _needed_ to be killed. That had to be the case. "There is no one to give them a will to carry out, is there?"

Lillian was quiet for a moment more.

Then she made a noise like a human's deepest exhale. _"Revenge."_

Rekushin moved to his feet before she could utter another word.

…

Rindou Akiho ran.

It was a stumbling, untidy gait, but she knew how to make the best of it, especially on even ground with uneven legs. It would have been easier without the bundle in her arms and Digitorin's clumsy grip on her back, but she would drop neither. Not while she was still breathing. And she was, like it or not.

Tears stung the corners of her face, rage tears and grief filling her like the warmth of a good meal served thirty minutes late. They would do, she decided. They would have to do. That monster had made an enemy, and nothing fueled survival like rage. Once she survived long enough, she would be able to live, and living would bring opportunity. And opportunity would bring pain.

Akiho was not someone to make an enemy out of. Alphamon had, a long, long time ago.


	26. Chapter 23

_Warning for implied abuse, self-loathing, very bad parenting. I refuse to confirm the exact events._

* * *

 **Chapter Twenty-Three: Gaps in the Air**

"Have you ever loved someone?"

Kurosugi slammed the door to the apartment. He slumped against the door. He tried to breathe. He failed. He tried to laugh. He cried. And Kuga Kurosugi was not someone prone to tears. He was someone who sulked, who threw things, who attacked others. There was no one to attack. His memories did it to him instead. Then again, it wasn't even his memories. It was just his twisted, worthlessly fucked up imagination.

" _It was inevitable,"_ he heard his father, ever so calm, smiling when he never smiled. _"Your brother's less organic. Digimon do not know how to deal with such things. He needed help. I got it for him. Of course, it didn't end well, but then, it was never meant to. You understand, Kurosugi."_

He does. Not in the 'this is acceptable' kind of understanding, but in the 'this is who I live with, this is what I live in' way that causes so much pain no matter where he goes. Because that's the way you survive in this awful world that doesn't care about anyone.

Kurosugi, much as he believed in that philosophy for himself, couldn't stand it in his older brother, who spent most of his life cleaning up after mistakes that weren't even his to begin with. He was just a glorified lapdog who could have maybe run most of the company by himself. Theoretically. He'd need finance and stuff but whatever. And that was how his father repaid him. That was how he repaid anyone. Death, humiliation, suffering, abuse. He shouldn't have been like that. He was supposed to be someone else, someone better.

Kurosugi ignored Tyrone, racking his brain. When had it started? When? When the smiles became a little more forced? When he started climbing cabinets and ladders and not keeping an eye on himself? When he wouldn't let people grab his wrists? When? When he started studying from home and skipped school on regular days?

Or was it… was it that last day? That last time when his brother had crawled in next to him and just held him real tight. That night when they were seven and five and Yuuya had thought he was sleeping and he had cried into the other pillow. Had cried and whispered. "Never you" with such venom for a little boy and yet Kuro had never doubted for a second that it was meant for him, meant to be about him and that alone was the most awful, painful thing because that wasn't when it started was it?

That was when it had stopped.

Frustrated tears rolled down his face and into his expensive pants and he stopped caring. His image was gone. There was no one here to see it, except to Tyrone, and he was going ignored.

Two arms pulled him close. He was too shocked to force the quaver out of his voice. "You're not supposed to use that key," he said.

Eri smiled, such a pretty, sad look. "I was asked to see to you."

Her eyes gave away nothing. Her eyes said nothing he couldn't decipher, and he didn't need to.

"You knew." Kurosugi stated. "You've known for years."

She nodded.

He gestured wildly with his arms. "You could have _done something!_ "

"And left him to fend for himself?" Eri laughed sadly. "Birds of a feather flock together, Kurosugi-kun."

He didn't know how to respond to that, and she pulled away, embarrassed. He looked away, even as she set steaming tea in front of him.

"Why does he want to kill aniki?" he finally asked. "He's gone. He got kidnapped and shit. The hell will he tell them? Business secrets? That he's not human?"

Eri sat in his brother's chair and he wanted to stomp his foot at her. She was quiet for a few minutes. "He's a loose end. He needs to be unraveled, even if the rest of us pay for it.

Kuro tried to nod, to acknowledge this. He picked up Tyrone. "I think I'm going to kill him," he finally said. "Dad, I mean."

Eri smiled as if she believed him. But she didn't and that was fine. No one ever believed in him. He was still going to do it. And then none of this would happen again.

He just had to figure out how.

…

"Have you ever loved someone?"

Taiga watched Nikolai in a meek sort of fear. He knew Nikolai would calm down. He always did. Or he'd run out of steam. He was a bit too busy being afraid and hurt himself. Sure, she was Niko's girlfriend, but Rina was _his friend_ too. And she was always like this, always somewhere far away from here in her mind, never communicating and always smiling. It was always this distant-

 _So it would be easier to leave._

But it couldn't be like that. She couldn't have made friends with them to just leave. No, she had to have left for another reason. He looked at the blurry photograph again. Squinting, Taiga couldn't help but feel a strange kind of nausea. The small blue part of the image was not a natural blue. It was artificial. It was not human. It was… probably a Digimon. Niko's Digimon. Niko's Sashenka.

"What the hell is she on, man?!"

Niko interrupts his thoughts and he's kind of grateful for that. He has to think about this instead or he'll lose his mind again. "I..." Taiga shook his head. "I think she wants something from you that you can't do?" He had nothing against Niko's dad, except he wished the old man would show up every once in a while and feed and talk to his kid. But at least Nikolai had a dad who worked to keep him in a house. Well, had.

"Like _what?"_ Taiga winced and Nikolai looked away. "Sorry."

"Mm." Forgive and forget. Just safer, just saner. "Think better of your old man I guess."

Nikolai grunted. "Yeah right. Like that's gonna happen."

"Well, what if he was kidnapped?"

Niko squinted, sitting back in the chair. "He was still gone for two damn days, Taiga, and no one noticed! Dads don't do that."

"I wouldn't know," Taiga shot back. There was a tick developing in his eye and he went to the computer, where the screen Rina had typed in was still visible. HE couldn't even bring himself to feel guilty. "But I do know one thing. Rina's cagey and emotionally unavailable a lot, but when she says stuff like finding him, like him being related to big stuff, she's usually right. So we need to find him. Even if all that happens is you dropkick him in the nads."

Niko's face twisted again. "How come you listen to her?"

Taiga hesitated, trying to remember everything Rina had said before she had disappeared, typing as quickly as possible. "Sometimes she's smarter than us and the teachers combined," he replied, pressing the enter key. "And sometimes she's dumb as a brick. With this stuff," The screen began to glow. "She's usually right."

There was a very rough tug at their navels and then, Taiga scrambling for their bags, they were gone.


	27. Chapter 24

**Chapter Twenty-Four: An Escape Plan**

"Have you ever loved someone?"

Oh by the gods _had he_.

The curse of love was that it could power you to action or inaction depending on where the love was, on what it stood for. It could lead you into a hopeful, gentle future, or drive you mad from knowing nothing could and would come. It could do anything between of course, but most people focused on the main two. IT was safer in the long run, at least in terms of survival mechanisms.

For Yakov Petrov, love had been the only thing to keep him going. Love for a person, love for a friend, love for a son… and even that had seemed wholly insufficient. Love had ended up with him laying here in the dirt, unable to move, unable to do more than barely breathe.

He thought of love. He thought of Kimi, proud, unshakable Kimiko, who lived by her own rules, ones that occasionally deigned to coincide with the rest of the world, who was proud of her immigrant parents and her awful grasp of Russian. Who would happily declare the sterner stuff of his homeland was poor taste at best.

Who starved herself for a boy gnawing on his fingernails for food.

He thought of his love, not his first love, no, but certainly his last. If he breathed his last out here in this forest, it definitely would be. He didn't quite desire that, but considering all he had done in his life and who was coming for him one day, that might even be preferable.

At least, with what strength he had had, he had sent Niko that message. Maybe it would be enough to keep him away, to cut ties completely. Deep down, had he not wished for that, in a sense? He deserved someone more. Much more than him. Of course, there was no one else to be that way, but… he had hoped.

And then Taiga… that poor child. He was too _young_. He couldn't, wouldn't, possibly be able to comprehend this world. This world that would call to him, it was likely. He had to. The boy's guardian had been sure of it, through his endless howls of sobs, through night after night of it that had made Yakov consider trembling. It was an awful sound like the airplane door closing with his wife's hand lost in the crowd. Like, if he closed his eyes, he could imagine the house, rickety with broken windows and showing sky blue, that his wife had died alone in. Alone, with nothing and no one to at least make the starvation fall less cruel.

Alone but for the one thing in the world that gave him hope.

But he couldn't think of it now. He was nowhere to be found. Vitium was gone as well, had been gone for what felt like days now. That was unusual. Vitium tended to return quickly to observe him. Also to tease him in her native, ragged hisses. She never touched him beyond that day where she dragged his body here with a screaming and too big mouth. It could swallow a head whole.

Yakov slowly pulled himself forward and up, seeming to knit his limbs back together by the joints. He lifted himself up to roll onto his side after what felt like a night. As he rolled himself to all fours one half a week later, he saw a white egg with jagged red stripes. It stood straight up, taunting him. It smoked an ugly grey.

He could imagine the reason for this. He could see the destruction, hear the screams, the screams of a true blue oath brother. And now Shine Greymon was gone, and for what purpose?

Even missing, the monster he had created taunted him without words.

When he managed to crawl to a signpost tree, Yakov panted for air, closing his eyes. He opened them again at the bright gleam of the sun. No, not the sun. It was something greener, neon and ugly. Something fell out of it with a loud thump. He expected an ugly smell, broken bones, sobs of pain. He got the sobs, so low and faint they would be more recognizable buried into a bed pillow. But he knew that voice keenly. Years ago, he had been fool enough to give the child some gauze and a lollipop.

Kuga Yuuya crawled from the heavy dent his small body had made into the earth and let out repeated mourning cries, followed by the low, dark tones of rage and loathing. Not even the smell of plums made that hostility fade away.

Yakov watched helplessly still. Perhaps if he had acted sooner, these children would not be this way. But that was a what-if. He forced his hand against the sign pole and began to drag himself upward to walk towards the screaming child, to give him the comfort he could not give his own child anymore, if he ever had.

* * *

Kurosugi edged the door open, looking about for any sign of his father. Finding none, he shut it behind him. His body struggled with quiet footsteps. It was better to be quiet to avoid waking the still thing laying on the ground in front of all the computers. He winced but moved closer. In his V-Pet, Tyrone was surprisingly silent. Kurosugi was actually grateful to him for once. God forbid he get some thoughtful peace and quiet.

He would have to thank him later, if he got out of this alive.

As he grew closer, Vitium stirred, its vivid blue eyes staring blankly up at the ceiling. Then its head swiveled on its lack of a neck. Kurosugi froze, hands going up in self-defense.

"Hi," he said in the quietest voice possible.

A single blink.

Kurosugi hesitated. "I… you really hate my dad, huh?"

Vitium gnashed its clunky teeth.

Kurosugi nodded and sat himself down on the floor, like he was a a toddler going to play with blocks instead of commit to a treaty with a gate monster. "I kinda do too."

Vitium blinked. He thought he saw the dragon's features blur. But then it was just a tiny black dragon once more, blinking at him again like an innocent child.

"He's going to kill my brother." Kurosugi shook his head. "He's going to kill him for no reason after doing _nothing_. After all he did, he… he..." The boy clenched his fists. "My brother doesn't deserve that! I-I-"

Kurosugi loosened the grip he had on his tears and proceeded to bawl like a tawdry child. Vitium watched him for a moment and then in slow, pained hops, moved towards him until its head rested on Kurosugi's leg. It chirped as he cried, licking tears as they fell on its snout.

The image was too adorable. Kurosugi laughed like the last time he had felt so free.

He had been seven years old.

"… Help me." Kurosugi said after a while. "I know you can do it. You're the one who wants to do it, you need to! Dad said so. So..."

Vitium opened its jaws wide and didn't speak, eyes going a strange soft color.

"Please," Kurosugi waited for his answer. Then he got a soft tongue lick on his cheek.

Was that its way of making a pinky promise?


End file.
